Which clubs have been the top scorers in each of the Premier Soccer League seasons since 1996/17? By Nick Said.
Mamelodi Sundowns finished the 2023/24 Premiership season as the leading scorers in the league for the fourth year in a row – and seventh time in the last nine campaigns – but frustratingly failed to break their own record.
The Brazilians netted 52 goals, the same number as in 2022/23, but were short of their best mark of 56 in 2021/22.
In a season where they broke so many other records, they had looked on course to smash that one too but managed only five goals in their final six Premiership fixtures to fall short of their own top mark.
Up to that point they had averaged a touch under two goals per game, and had they continued with that scoring rate would have finished with 59.
Finishing as top scorers in the Premiership has historically been no guarantee of the title, although this has become more of a trend in recent campaigns, spearheaded by the freescoring Brazilians.
In only 13 of the 28 seasons since the formation of the Premier Soccer League in 1996/97 has the league’s top scoring team finished the campaign at the summit of the table.
In fact, no club had been both champions and top of the goals tally in the PSL until Kaizer Chiefs managed it in 2004/05, and they have subsequently been followed by Mamelodi Sundowns (nine times) and SuperSport United (twice).
In 2012/13, champions Kaizer Chiefs and runners-up Platinum Stars scored the same number of goals as AmaKhosi achieved the feat for the second time, even though it was in a shared capacity.
Chiefs managed the most goals ever in a Premiership campaign when they scored 73 in the 1998/99 season, but still only managed a second-place finish, ironically finishing behind Sundowns on goal-difference. That was over a 34-game campaign.
Chiefs and Sundowns had held the record for the most goals since the league was reduced to 30 games per season with AmaKhosi netting 55 times in 2004/05, thanks largely to the 25 goals from Zambian hitman Collins Mbesuma, and Sundowns the same tally in the 2015/16 season.
But that was eclipsed by the 56 goals Sundowns scored in 2021/22, a mark they had seemed set to smash for the past two seasons until some late season wobbles.
Other teams less likely to finish as leading scorers were Manning Rangers (58 in 34 games) in 1997/98, the year after they had been crowned champions, Gavin Hunt’s Black Leopards (58 in 34) who finished in eighth, Ajax Cape Town (44 in 30) in 2007/08, the ‘lowest top scorers’ in a 30-game season, Moroka Swallows (48 in 30) in 2011/12 as they were runners-up and Cape Town City (47 in 30) in 2017/18 under Benni McCarthy.
1996/97: KAIZER CHIEFS – 54
1997/98: MANNING RANGERS – 58
1998/99: KAIZER CHIEFS – 73
1999/00: ORLANDO PIRATES – 72
2000/01: ORLANDO PIRATES – 60
2001/02: BLACK LEOPARDS – 58
2002/03: SUPERSPORT UNITED – 54
2003/04: SUPERSPORT UNITED – 48
2004/05: KAIZER CHIEFS – 55
2005/06: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 45
2006/07: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 45
2007/08: AJAX CAPE TOWN – 44
2008/09: SUPERSPORT UNITED – 45
2009/10: SUPERSPORT UNITED – 51
2010/11: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 52
2011/12: MOROKA SWALLOWS – 48
2012/13: KAIZER CHIEFS, PLATINUM STARS – 48
2013/14: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 51
2014/15: ORLANDO PIRATES – 46
2015/16: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 55
2016/17: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 52
2017/18: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 49
2018/19: CAPE TOWN CITY – 47
2019/20: KAIZER CHIEFS – 48
2020/21: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 49
2021/22: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 56
2022/23: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 52
2023/24: MAMELODI SUNDOWNS – 52
