PITTSBURGH (Oct. 15, 2023) — Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC striker Albert Dikwa is the winner of the USL Championship Golden Boot as the league’s top goal scorer in 2023, a title that was confirmed just past midnight with the completion of the league’s regular season.
Dikwa captured the Golden Boot with a career-best 20 goals this season, helping to lead the Hounds to win the Players’ Shield for the best record in the regular season. In his fourth season with the Hounds, the 25-year-old from Garoua, Cameroon, propelled himself to second on the club’s all-time scoring list with 37 goals since arriving midway through the 2020 season.
Among Dikwa’s season highlights was his first career hat trick in the season’s second match, a 3-1 win on March 18 at Memphis 901 FC. He would earn USL Championship Player of the Week for his hat trick, and he went on to be selected to the league’s Team of the Week four times, with an additional three appearances on the Team of the Week bench.
Perhaps his most memorable goal of the season didn’t count toward his Golden Boot total. Dikwa scored the lone goal in the Hounds’ 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew in the U.S. Open Cup on May 24, which was the Hounds’ second win over an MLS team in the season and sent them to the cup quarterfinals for the first time since 2001.
Adding to Dikwa’s achievement was that he hit the 20-goal plateau despite missing a month of the season — six matches in total — after suffering a broken collarbone on June 6.
It is the third time in Riverhounds history that the club has had the top goal scorer in U.S. Soccer’s second division. Thiago Martins led the A-League with 22 goals in 2003, and José Angulo won the Golden Boot in the Championship — then known as USL Pro — with 15 goals in 2013.
Dikwa and the Hounds begin their journey through the USL Championship Playoffs this Saturday, Oct. 21 at 7 p.m., when the team hosts Detroit City FC in the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals at Highmark Stadium.
