UPL trio locked in a blazing three-horse golden boot race

The race for this season’s StarTimes Uganda Premier League top scorer's gong is hotting up, and it is interesting to see a lot of hats being thrown into the ring.

The golden boot seemed to be Soltilo Bright Stars 11-goal striker Nelson Senkatuka to lose two weeks ago but he has since earned worthy challengers  in  KCCA's Muhammad Shaban (11 goals) and Kitara hitman Denis Omedi (10).

You can also rule out Maroons stocky forward Fred Amaku (nine), Express striker Isaac Wagoina (nine) and Alex Kitata (eight) of Bul at your own peril.

Just last season, then Express forward Allan Kayiwa bagged the golden boot with just 13 goals from 26 matches registering 2376 minutes on the pitch which translates into 91.38 average minutes per game.

Charles Bbaale, then at SC Villa, came second with 12 goals from 27 matches, Rogers  Mato (then at KCCA) was third with 11 goals from 24 matches while Amaku was fourth with ten goals from 26 matches.

With roughly 10 match days left to the end of this season, the rate at which strikers are striving for the golden boot promises to surpass Kayiwa's feat last campaign and also set about to breaking Geoffrey Sserunkuma's accomplishment with KCCA in the 2017 season - the last player to score above 20 goals.

Before last evening's Soltilo Bright Stars' econcunter with Vipers at the St Mary's Stadium-Kitende, Senkatuka's 11 goals had lifted the club from the red zone into the 11th slot in the table in what can be rightly described as a one-man mission.

The 2021-2022 season top scorer Cesar Manzoki harvested 18 goals, while the winner in the 2020-2021 season banged 16 goals. 

At this rate and the six-man race for the ultimate prize, it promises to rain goals until the end of the season because the golden boot battle is as delicate and unpredictable as the title race.

On Wednesday, Shaban struck a magnificent double as KCCA whipped NEC 3-0 to take his goal tally to 11, one strike more than Omedi who has recently twice liberated Kitara against Wakiso Giants and the Kasasiro Boys.

Only Omedi (against UPDF) and Senkatuka (against demoted Arua Hill) have scored hat-tricks in the smouldering tricky boot race with the other coming from URA's Joseph Ssemujju (against Arua Hill) who has since frozen on those three goals.

Seven hat-tricks were registered last season compared to the 13 in the 2021-2021 season and the 14 in the 2020-2021.

Table leaders Kiatara have scored the most goals thus far - 34- but compared to last season's top scoring team - KCCA with 44 goals - the struggle is still on. In fact, holders Vipers had scored 69 goals a season before while KCCA had 61 goals in the 2018-2019 season.