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Ebony Shoe

Association football award in Belgium

Summary

Association football award in Belgium

Moroccan [[Mbark Boussoufa]] won the Ebony Shoe a record three times

The Ebony Shoe award (Dutch: Ebbenhouten schoen, French: Soulier d'ébène) is a football award in Belgium given annually to the best African or African origin player in the Belgian Pro League. The jury is composed of the coaches of league clubs, the Belgium national team manager, sport journalists, and one or more honorary jurors.

As of 2020, Mbark Boussoufa (3 wins), Daniel Amokachi (2 wins), Vincent Kompany (2 wins) and Dieumerci Mbokani (2) are the only players to have won the trophy more than once.

History

The Ebony Shoe was created in 1992 by Cerina de Rosen, Fely Samuna, Bernard Malaba Tshienda, Eugene Bunga and Moro Mukota in association with the African Culture Promotion. The reasoning for it was because it was felt by a number of African students in Belgium that football players of African origin were being overlooked for individual awards. It was based upon the Golden Shoe award that already existed. Eligibility was determined as a player being born in Africa or being of African descent for those born outside of Africa.

Selection for the award is made by a panel of club managers from Belgium's top three divisions, the Belgium national football team manager as well as journalists, judges and honorary jurors. The award is made in two parts. Three quarters of the way through a season, a vote is held to determine the five player shortlist with a second vote being held after the season has finished to decide which of the shortlisted players had won the Ebony Shoe.

In 2021, Paul Onuachu won the Ebony Shoe, becoming the first Nigerian to win it in 25 years while also winning the Belgian Professional Footballer of the Year and being the top scorer in Belgium. In 2023, La Tribune discussed which winner had the most impact, with Vincent Kompany and Mbark Boussoufa being named as the two that had.

Winners

Year	Winner	Second	Third	Player	Club	Player
1992	Daniel Amokachi	Club Brugge	only the winner declared
1993	Victor Ikpeba	RFC Liège	Chidi Nwanu	Beveren	Daniel Amokachi	Club Brugge
1994	Daniel Amokachi	Club Brugge	Jean-Jacques Missé-Missé	Charleroi	Roger Lukaku	Seraing
1995	Godwin Okpara	Eendracht Aalst	Celestine Babayaro	Anderlecht	Yaw Preko	Anderlecht
1996	Celestine Babayaro	Anderlecht	Michel Ngonge	Harelbeke	Jean-Claude Mukanya	Lommel
1997	Émile Mpenza (COD)	Mouscron	Mbo Mpenza (COD)	Mouscron	Khalilou Fadiga	Lommel
1998	Eric Addo	Club Brugge	Souleymane Oularé	Genk	Khalilou Fadiga	Club Brugge
1999	Souleymane Oularé	Genk	only the winner ranked; the rest of the top 5 unordered (Fadiga, Keita, É. Mpenza and M. Mpenza)
2000	Hervé Nzelo-Lembi	Club Brugge	Elos Elonga-Ekakia	Anderlecht	Souleymane Youla	Lokeren
2001	Mido	Gent	Hervé Nzelo-Lembi	Club Brugge	Adékambi Olufadé	Lokeren
2002	Moumouni Dagano	Genk	Sambégou Bangoura	Lokeren	Ibrahim Kargbo	RWDM
2003	Aruna Dindane	Anderlecht	Sambégou Bangoura	Lokeren	Paul Kpaka	Germinal Beerschot
2004	Vincent Kompany (COD)	Anderlecht	Aruna Dindane	Anderlecht	Mbo Mpenza (COD)	Mouscron
2005	Vincent Kompany (COD)	Anderlecht	Sambégou Bangoura	Standard Liège	Aruna Dindane	Anderlecht
2006	Mbark Boussoufa	Gent	Ibrahim Salou	Zulte Waregem	Mohammed Tchité	Standard Liège
2007	Mohammed Tchité	Anderlecht	Ahmed Hassan	Anderlecht	Adékambi Olufadé	Gent
2008	Marouane Fellaini (MAR)	Standard Liège	Mbark Boussoufa	Anderlecht	Mohamed Sarr	Standard Liège
2009	Mbark Boussoufa	Anderlecht	Copa	Lokeren	Nana Asare	Mechelen
2010	Mbark Boussoufa	Anderlecht	Romelu Lukaku (COD)	Anderlecht	Dorge Kouemaha	Club Brugge
2011	Romelu Lukaku (COD)	Anderlecht	Mohammed Tchité	Standard Liège	Mehdi Carcela	Standard Liège
2012	Dieumerci Mbokani	Anderlecht	Cheikhou Kouyaté	Anderlecht	Mohammed Tchité	Standard Liège
2013	Mbaye Leye	Zulte Waregem	Cheikhou Kouyaté	Anderlecht	Dieumerci Mbokani	Anderlecht
2014	Michy Batshuayi (COD)	Standard Liège	Hamdi Harbaoui	Lokeren	Paul-Jose M'Poku (COD)	Standard Liège
2015	Neeskens Kebano	Charleroi	Moses Simon	Gent	Chancel Mbemba	Anderlecht
2016	Sofiane Hanni	Mechelen	Nana Asare	Gent	Frank Acheampong	Anderlecht
2017	Youri Tielemans (COD)	Anderlecht	Landry Dimata (COD)	Oostende	Sofiane Hanni	Anderlecht
2018	Anthony Limbombe (COD)	Club Brugge	Mehdi Carcela	Standard Liège	Ibrahima Seck	Genk
2019	Mbwana Samatta	Genk	only the winner ranked; the rest of the top 5 unordered (Boli, Carcela, Dimata and Danjuma)
2020	Dieumerci Mbokani	Antwerp	Clinton Mata	Club Brugge	Simon Deli	Club Brugge
2021	Paul Onuachu	Genk	Clinton Mata	Club Brugge	Théo Bongonda (COD)	Genk
2022	Tarik Tissoudali	Gent	Paul Onuachu	Genk	Joshua Zirkzee (NGA)	Anderlecht
2023	Mike Trésor (BDI)	Genk	Victor Boniface	Union SG	Gift Orban	Gent
2024	Kévin Denkey	Cercle Brugge	Mohamed Amoura	Union SG	Bilal El Khannous	Genk
2025	Tolu Arokodare	Genk	Noah Sadiki	Union SG	Zakaria El Ouahdi	Genk

Breakdown of winners

By country of origin

Country	Number of wins	Winning years
COD Democratic Republic of the Congo		1997, 2000, 2004, 2005, 2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2020
NGA Nigeria		1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2021, 2025
MAR Morocco		2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2022
BDI Burundi		2007, 2023
GHA Ghana		1998
GUI Guinea		1999
EGY Egypt		2001
BFA Burkina Faso		2002
CIV Ivory Coast		2003
SEN Senegal		2013
ALG Algeria		2016
TAN Tanzania		2019
TOG Togo		2024

By club

Club	Number of wins	Winning years
Anderlecht		1996, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2017
Genk		1999, 2002, 2019, 2021, 2023, 2025
Club Brugge		1992, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2018
Gent		2001, 2006, 2022
Standard Liège		2008, 2014
RFC Liège		1993
Eendracht Aalst		1995
Mouscron		1997
Zulte Waregem		2013
Charleroi		2015
Mechelen		2016
Antwerp		2020
Cercle Brugge		2024

References

"premier trophée pour les Zèbres --"L'Avenier"".
https://www.soulierdebene.be/
Stratton, Stephen. (4 August 2017). "The Ebony Shoe and The Belgian Lion". The Football Times.
(29 March 2025). "Michy Batshuayi reçoit le "Soulier d'Ebène"".
(20 May 2022). "Tarik Tissoudali: Morocco winger wins Belgium's Ebony Shoe". BBC Sport.
(8 June 2021). "Paul Onuachu: Nigeria striker wins Ebony Shoe to complete awards hat-trick". BBC Sport.
"Qui est le meilleur Soulier d'Ebène de l'histoire ? Il y a bagarre dans La Tribune".
(13 May 2013). "Mbaye Leye wint de Ebbenhouten Schoen". sporza.be.
(5 May 2014). "Michy Batshuayi krijgt de Ebbenhouten Schoen". sporza.be.
(11 May 2015). "Neeskens Kebano wint de Ebbenhouten Schoen". sporza.be.
(7 May 2019). "Tanzania's Mbwana Samatta wins Belgium's Ebony Shoe award". BBC Sport.
(1 June 2020). "Antwerp-spits Dieumerci Mbokani wint de Ebbenhouten Schoen".
(21 May 2021). "No Mbokani: Ebony Shoe will see new name on honour roll".
(19 May 2022). "Tarik Tissoudali bekroont ijzersterk seizoen met Ebbenhouten Schoen".
(22 May 2023). "Genkse assistkoning Mike Trésor is nieuwe Ebbenhouten Schoen, Boniface en Orban mee op podium".
(13 May 2024). "Topschutter Kevin Denkey bekroont seizoen met Ebbenhouten Schoen: "Wordt moeilijk om bij Cercle te blijven"".
(12 May 2025). "Genkse goalgetter Tolu wint na sterk seizoen de Ebbenhouten Schoen: "Trots dat ik in de geschiedenisboeken beland"".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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