The Football League Championship Top Scorer, is an annual English association football title given to the top goalscorer at the end of the Football League Championship season, since its creation in 2004. The Football League Championship is the second tier domestic league competition in club football in England, behind the top level Premier League. Nathan Ellington was the first winner become Championship top scorer, scoring 24 goals from 45 games in the 2004-05 season. Watford's Danny Graham is the latest winner of the award, having scored 24 goals in 45 games in the 2010–11 season.
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Sylvan Ebanks-Blake is the only one player to have won the award more than once, in the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons, and by virtue of his mid-season transfer from Plymouth Argyle to Wolverhamtpon Wanderers in January 2008, he is also the only player to have won it with more than one club. No other player or team has won it more than once.
Winning the Golden Boot is not necessarily associated with league success; as of 2009-10, only three of the six award winners have been part of a team that gained promotion to the Premier League, and only one as the Championship Champions, when Ebanks-Blake scored 25 goals from 29 appearances for Wolverhampton in 2008-09.
No player born outside England has yet won the award, although the only recipient to have played senior international football, Marlon King, has declared for the Jamaican national team.
Only Peter Whittingham has played every league during a top scoring season, when he scored 20 goals in 46 games in Cardiff City's 2009-10 season. The fewest games played in a season while still winning a Golden Boot, is 39 games, when Sylvan Ebanks-Blake scored 25 goals during Wolverhampton Wanderers's title winning 2008-09 season.
The highest number of goals scored to win the Golden Boot is 25, a record held by Sylvan Ebanks-Blake when he scored 25 goals during the 2008-09 season. Every winner of the Golden Boot has so far recorded an average strike rate of at least one goal every two games, and scored a minimum of 21 goals.
Combining the statistics for all winners up to 2010, a Football League Championship Top Scorer scores an average of 19 goals from 37 games, a strike rate of around 0.51 goals per appearance.
The following table lists the Football League Championship Top scorers per season, detailing their club, goal tally, actual games played, and their strike rate (goals/games).
Key to symbols:
| Season | Winner | Club | Goals | Games[note 1] | Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004-05 | Nathan EllingtonT | Wigan AthleticP | 24 | 45 | 0.53 |
| 2005-06 | Marlon KingT | WatfordP | 21 | 41 | 0.51 |
| 2006-07 | Jamie Cureton | Colchester United | 23 | 44 | 0.52 |
| 2007-08 | Sylvan Ebanks-Blake | Plymouth Argyle & Wolverhamtpon Wanderers[note 2] | 23 | 45 | 0.51 |
| 2008-09 | Sylvan Ebanks-BlakeT (2) | Wolverhampton WanderersC | 25 | 39 | 0.64 |
| 2009-10 | Nicky Maynard/ Peter WhittinghamT | Bristol City/Cardiff City | 20 | 42/46 | 0.47/0.45 |
| 2010-11 | Danny Graham T | Watford | 24 | 45 | 0.53 |
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