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For the first time in the A-League men’s 20-year history, there are an unprecedented four young Australians vying for this season’s Golden Boot award. Boding well for the future of Australian football and the Socceroos, remarkably they are all in the 20-23 age group.
Traditionally an older, experienced striker has topped the Golden Boot standings. Last year that was 31-year-old Perth Glory forward Adam Taggart, and Melbourne City marksman Jamie Maclaren, also 31, won the previous four years in a row.
Excluding outliers like Fiji’s Roy Krishna (21) in 2019 and a young Adam Taggart (20) in 2014, a number of older foreign players such as Bobo (33), Besart Berisha (31), Bruno Fornaroli (29), Marc Janko (32), Sergio Van Dijk (29), Shane Smeltz (29), and older Australians Daniel McBreen (35), Danny Allsopp (31), Joel Griffiths (28), Archie Thompson (28), and Sasho Petrovski (30) have won the award.
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So it’s immensely exciting to see not one but four young Australian players at the top of the goal-scoring charts.
Newcastle’s Eli Adams joined the Golden Boot race by scoring a brace on the weekend to move up to sixth place with nine goals, just one goal behind Sydney FC’s Polish striker Patryk Klimala, meaning five of the top six goal scorers are now Australian players 20-23 years old.
Adelaide United’s 20-year-old striker Archie Goodwin is tied with Segecic at the top of the goal-scoring charts with 12 goals in 22 games, though only starting in 16 of those games. Hailing from Newcastle, he became the Newcastle Jets youngest debutant and goal scorer as a 16-year-old, and then became the youngest player in the A-league to score a brace. Adelaide signed him to an unusually long A-League contract of four years, clearly recognising Archie’s potential and so far this season he hasn’t let them down.
Goodwin celebrates with teammates Photo by Scott Gardiner/Getty Images)
If Goodwin keeps scoring and wins the Golden Boot, he must be considered for Tony Popovic’s Socceroos squad for the June World Cup qualifiers against Japan in Perth and Saudi Arabia away. Although, Popovic has shown a preference so far for selecting players that he has worked with and who already know his systems.
High-flying Western United sit second on the table behind Auckland, with 23-year-old striker Noah Botic contributing 11 goals in 22 games with five assists. As a 17-year-old, Botic trialled at Manchester United before signing a two-year scholarship with Hoffenheim. In 2019, he was named by The Guardian as one of the best 60 youth players in world football.
Botic has blossomed under the management of Socceroos legend John Aloisi, and playing up front with the wily big-man striker, Japanese veteran Hiroshi Ibusuki, has surely also helped in his development. Incidentally, Noah is the cousin of former Australian striker Tomi Juric, and his brother, Australian youth international Deni Juric, both now playing and regularly scoring for the same team in the Slovenian league. Botic may not suit Popovic’s tactics of playing just one striker, but if he finishes the season on top, he should be in the squad.
Western Sydney local, the Wanderers 23-year-old forward Nicolas Milanovic, has been in imperious form this season scoring 11 goals in 21 games with six assists. He scored with his trusty left foot again last weekend against table-topping Auckland to save the Wanderers from dropping points. The club’s joint top scorer and player of the year last season, he has taken his game to another level, scoring a number of eye-catching goals, and must also be in consideration for a place in Popovic’s June Socceroos squad.
Nicolas Milanovic. (Photo by Damian Briggs/Speed Media/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Sydney FC’s Adrian Segecic has brought fans to the edge of their seats with his late goals on multiple occasions this season, many of them after coming on as a late substitute. He most recently scored a brace against top-of-the-table Auckland, taking him to equal top scorer in the league. Not afraid to shoot with his sniper-like left foot, he has now scored 12 goals from 21 games, while only starting 11 of those games, and has by far the best goals per minute of any player in the league at just over 100 minutes per goal.
He’s also scored five goals in Sydney FC’s ACL2 campaign, almost providing yet another late show recently with two shots narrowly missing the target after coming on as a half-time substitute in Sydney’s 2-0 loss to Lion City Sailors in Singapore. Sydney will need Segecic wearing his goal-scoring boots in next week’s return leg at Allianz stadium if they hope to host the final in Sydney in May and the US$2.5 million prize money for the winners. Another player who should be in Popovic’s plans.
This A-League season has been one of the best ever, if not the best ever for emerging young talent and transfers abroad. In 2025 we’ve already seen Brisbane Roar’s Thomas Waddingham (20) and Sydney FC’s Hayden Matthews (20) sign for Portsmouth, while Macarthur Bulls Jed Drew (21), Ariath Piol (20), and Ollie Jones (22) headed off to the Austrian Bundesliga, MLS, and Denmark respectively. Perth Glory’s Jaylan Pearman (18) and Robbie Cook (18) signed for Queens Park Rangers and Leeds United. Even in the last few days, Perth Glory’s Joel Anasmo (20) transferred to Korean giants Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors.
Socceroos fans will be desperately hoping that at least one or more of the four young Golden Boot contenders are selected by Tony Popovic for Australia’s crucial World Cup qualifiers in June. It would be unfortunate if Popovic chooses the incumbents he knows and trusts like Brandon Borrello and Mitch Duke. Duke has been a good servant for the national team but he’s not getting game time in Japan and hasn’t scored for club or country for a long time. Borrello is a good player at A-League level, but he isn’t even the best player at Western Sydney Wanderers, and he has not been regularly scoring goals. For the good of Australian football and the Socceroos World Cup aspirations, let’s hope he picks some of these young guns instead.
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