AFC Asian Cup 2023 Golden Boot: Top scorers in Qatar 2024 tournament

Ben Miller

AFC Asian Cup 2023 Golden Boot: Top scorers in Qatar 2024 tournament image

The array of players with an eye for goal at the AFC Asian Cup 2023 are likely to have to be at their prolific best to land the tournament Golden Boot.

Qatar's Almoez Ali was the runaway winner at the previous edition in 2019, netting nine of the 130 goals at the finals to finish five ahead of any player.

The Sporting News will update the top scorers' table below, with assists and minutes played serving as the first and second tiebreakers.

MORE: Favourites to win the AFC Asian Cup Golden Boot in 2024

Asian Cup 2023 top scorers table

The Sporting News will be updating the table below after every matchday of the 2023 Asian Cup, through to the final on February 10, 2024.

Rank Player Team Goals (PKs) Assists Matches Minutes Played
1. Akram Afif Qatar 8 (4) 3 7 506
2. Aymen Hussein Iraq 6 (1) 0 4 196
3. Ayase Ueda Japan 4 (1) 0 5 332
= Yazan Al-Naimat Jordan 4 (0) 3 7 484
4. Son Heung-min South Korea 3 (1) 1 6 600
= Oday Dabbagh Palestine 3 (0) 0 4 290
= Mehdi Taremi Iran 3 (1) 0 5 435

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Asian Cup Golden Boot winners

In 2019, Ali broke the record for the most goals scored by one player at a single edition of the tournament, beating the total set in 1996 by storied Iran striker Ali Daei, who was the world's top male international scorer with 108 until current Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him in 2021.

A three-goal total has been enough to top-score on four occasions, with two enough at one tournament, in 1964. That is unlikely to be repeated because the tournament involved a single stage between 1956 and 1968; the number of games players can participate in and potentially advance to has increased across the history of the cup, with teams guaranteed three matches in the current format and taking part in up to four more during the knockout phase.

Year Player Team Goals
2019 Almoez Ali Qatar 9
2015 Ali Mabkhout UAE 5
2011 Koo Ja-cheol South Korea 5
2007 Younis Mahmoud, Naohiro Takahara, Yasser Al-Qahtani Iraq/Japan/Saudi Arabia 4
2004 A'ala Hubail, Ali Karimi Bahrain/Iran 5
2000 Lee Dong-gook South Korea 6
1996 Ali Daei Iran 8
1992 Fahad Al-Bishi Saudi Arabia 3
1988 Lee Tae-ho South Korea 3
1984 Jia Xiuquan, Shahrokh Bayani, Nasser Mohammadkhani China/Iran/Iran 3
1980 Behtash Fariba, Choi Soon-ho Iran/South Korea 7
1976 Fathi Kameel, Gholam Hossein Mazloumi, Nasser Nouraei Kuwait/Iran/Iran 3
1972 Hossein Kalani Iran 5
1968 Homayoun Behzadi, Giora Spiegel, Moshe Romano Iran/Israel/Israel 4
1964 Inder Singh, Mordechai Spiegler India/Israel 2
1960 Cho Yoon-ok South Korea 4
1956 Nahum Stelmach Israel 4

Asian Cup all-time top scorers

Daei is the all-time top scorer with 14 goals but several players could overtake him in 2024, although they would likely need to top-score in order to do so.

Ali and UAE captain Ali Mabkhout were leading the race to take the record before the start of the tournament, sitting five goals shy of Daei's total.

(Data correct before start of 2023 tournament. Active players denoted*.)

  Player Team Goals
1. Ali Daei Iran 14
2. Lee Dong-gook South Korea 10
= Almoez Ali* Qatar 10
4. Naohiro Takahara Japan 9
= Ali Mabkhout* UAE 9
6. Jasem Al-Huwaidi Kuwait 8
= Younis Mahmoud Iraq 8
8. Hossein Kalani Iran 7
= Faisal Al-Dakhil Kuwait 7
= Behtash Fariba Iran 7
= Choi Soon-ho South Korea 7

How to watch 2023 AFC Asian Cup: TV channel, live stream

Here's how to watch 2023 AFC Asian Cup matches across selected areas of the world's major regions:

Region TV Streaming
USA FuboParamount+
Canada

UK TrillerTV
Australia 10 Play Paramount+
India FanCode

USA: AFC Asian Cup matches will be available for live streaming via Paramount+ and Fubo.

UK: Asian Cup matches will be shown on subscription streaming service TrillerTV.

Australia: Paramount+ will provide streaming services for the tournament and 10 Play will broadcast Australia's matches.

India: Streaming service FanCode is the place to go for AFC Asian Cup matches.

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Ben Miller

Ben Miller Photo

Ben Miller has been writing about sport for 25 years, following all levels of football as well as boxing, MMA, athletics and tennis. He’s seen five promotions, three relegations, one World Cup winner and home games in at least three different stadiums as a result of his lifelong devotion to Brighton & Hove Albion. His main aim each week is to cover at least one game or event that does not require a last-minute rewrite.