Who are top goal scorers in the NPFL 2025/2026 season?

The race for the 2025/2026 Nigeria Premier Football League, NPFL, Golden Boot is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in recent memory. 

Heading into Matchday 33, six players are separated by just a single goal and any one of them could finish the season as the league's top marksman.

Here is everything you need to know about the leading goal scorers in the NPFL this season.

If you follow Nigerian football closely, Obaje needs no introduction. The veteran forward was the NPFL's top scorer back in 2016, when he netted an impressive 18 goals. 

Nearly a decade later, he is reminding the league exactly what he is capable of. This season, Obaje has been the engine of Enugu Rangers' title chase, contributing 11 goals and 2 assists so far. 

His experience at the top level gives him a psychological edge as the season reaches its most critical phase. Having already won a Golden Boot, he knows what it takes to hold his nerve in a final sprint.

The most exciting story of the Golden Boot race belongs to Joseph Arumala. The 21-year-old winger has taken the NPFL by storm in what is only Ikorodu City's second season in the top flight after promotion.

Operating primarily from the left flank, Arumala has matched Obaje's tally of 11 goals last weekend against Warri Wolves and has been central to Ikorodu City's surprisingly impressive campaign. 

For a young player in his first-ever campaign to be competing for the league's individual prize is a remarkable achievement and one that will not have gone unnoticed by bigger clubs.

On pure efficiency, Victor Mbaoma may be the most dangerous player in this race. The clinical forward, formerly of Enyimba and Rwandan side APR FC, missed the early part of the season through rib injuries, yet still arrived at 10 goals in just 23 appearances. 

That gives him the best goals-per-game ratio among the top six contenders.

With five games to play, and with his body now fully fit, Mbaoma has more than enough in the tank to overtake the leaders. Do not write him off.

The most unusual name on this list, in the best possible way. Abdulrahman is a central midfielder by trade, yet he leads the entire top six in direct goal involvement with 10 goals and 2 assists. 

His ability to arrive late in the box and finish with composure makes him a nightmare to track, and one of the most complete contributors in the league this season.

A midfielder winning the NPFL Golden Boot would be a remarkable story. With five games left, it remains very much possible.

Collins holds a distinction that none of his rivals can claim: he is the only player among the top six to have scored a hat-trick in the 2025/2026 season. 

That kind of match-winning ability, the capacity to win a game almost single-handedly, makes him arguably the most dangerous finisher in the race. One big performance in the final five matchdays could transform his position entirely.

Obioma knows what it takes to finish as the NPFL's best striker. The Abia Warriors forward won the league's Golden Boot in the 2022/2023 season while at Enyimba, and he is hunting a second.

What makes his 10-goal tally particularly striking is that he has not recorded a single assist this season. Every contribution has been a finish, pure and simple. 

As a dedicated target man, Obioma does not need the ball to fall perfectly; he simply needs chances, and he will take them.

Five matchdays left, and with just one goal separating all six players, this Golden Boot race is genuinely impossible to call. 

Obaje brings experience, Arumala brings momentum. Mbaoma brings efficiency, Abdulrahman brings unpredictability, and Collins brings the hat-trick threat. Obioma brings pedigree.

Any one of them could be lifting the award when the final whistle blows on the 2025/2026 NPFL season.