By McGeorge Mbare
THE Central Region Soccer League Division One 2026 Golden Boot race is tightening up, with Mathew Nhlabati and Watson Edwards leading the scoring charts.
Blanket Mine forward Mathew Nhlabati has set sky-high standards this season, so it almost feels like a mini drought that he has gone two straight matches without finding the back of the net against Gwanda Pirates and Vhembe Stars Academy.
Even so, the Blanket Mine goal machine remains the runaway favourite to claim the Golden Boot, alongside Chapungu’s Watson Edwards, who has also scored 18 goals.
Blanket Mine’s Mbonisi Ncube is also firmly in the conversation, having netted 15 goals just three behind Nhlabati and Edwards.
Compared to last season, Sheasham’s Wilfred Madzungu walked away with the Golden Boot after scoring 25 goals throughout the campaign, followed by Hard Rock’s Donald Ngoma.
The big question now is whether any of the three leading scorers can break Madzungu’s record with the remaining matches still to be played.
Donald Ngoma, who bulldozed his way to last season’s scoring title as Hard Rock marched to the Central Region Soccer League Division One trophy, has started this campaign at a slower pace.
Ngoma was the second-highest scorer with more than 15 goals during the 2025 season.
This time around, however, he has managed nine goals in the 2026 campaign.
On current form, Nhlabati looks like the safest bet in the Central Region Soccer League, with Blanket Mine scoring more than two goals per match in most of their games and Nhlabati consistently involved, either through scoring or providing assists.
But that begs the real question, who is equipped to breathe down the necks of Edwards, Ncube and Nhlabati and walk away with the prize? And can any of them go a step further and break Madzungu’s record from last season?
Make no mistake, this season has all the ingredients to be a spectacle.
There is no shortage of star forwards itching to etch their names at the top of the goal charts, just as the leading scorers did throughout the 2025 campaign.
In the 2025 season, the top goalscorer Madzungu walked away with the Central Region Soccer League Division One Soccer star of the year award and the golden boot.
The real matter now is will Nhlabati, Edwards and Mbonisi able to do the same.