The Golden Shoe, arbitrary as it was, had new winner – a Dutch of the next crop. Two men scored 31 goals this season – Laszlo Fekete (Ujpesti Dosza) and Thomas Mavros (AEK). The Greek was a prolific scorer and one of the best players of his country in the 1970s. Fekete was already a bit fading, he never fulfilled earlier expectations, but scored he did. Hungarians appeared often among the best scorers – Golden shoe really favoured weaker leagues, where a striker of strong team had plenty opportunities against much weaker opponents. Nothing surprising that Greeks and Hungarians scored so much. But they were outdone.
Two silver and one golden boot – from left: Fekete, Kist, Mavros.
Kees Kist scored 34 goals and got the award. He played for the strangely made, but rapidly rising AZ’67 Alkmaar. Kist was rising along with his club – he was of the next Dutch generation, pushing its way to replace the famous Flying Dutch of the first half of the 1970s. Players like Kist seemingly ensured continuity.
A typical dangerous Kist, not afraid from and not really stopped with such tackles. Like many Dutch players, he made strong impression playing for a smaller club – and then moving to Ajax or Feyenoord. It was a bit different this time: Kist was to stay with AZ”67 and have sensational European season before moving to other teams and countries as already established big star. To a point, the Golden Shoe was the big impression he made to Europe. He continued to score everywhere he played, but perhaps he got bigger reputation he really deserved. For he was not to be the next great world superstar… like the rest of his generation, he represents the time of relative decline of Dutch football. But this is general assessment – Kist outdid all other European strikers this year. He was good player and excellent scorer. Those, making the 1980s were pushing ahead – they were coming, Kist was a clear sign of that.