Atlético Ottawa forward Sam Salter has officially broken the Canadian Premier League's single-season goalscoring record with 15 tallies in the 2025 regular season.
After an official scoring change confirmed on Wednesday, Ottawa's third goal in Saturday's match against Vancouver FC — originally recorded as an own goal by Aidan O'Connor — has now been credited to Salter, giving him two in that match.
"I'm really happy and really proud," Salter told CanPL.ca. "It's a really proud moment for me, but for the team also because without them I couldn't have achieved this."
The Ottawa striker surpasses former Halifax Wanderers teammate João Morelli, who set the prior record by scoring 14 for the Wanderers in the 2021 campaign.
Salter equalled Morelli's total in the 40th minute of Saturday's contest, finishing a cross from David Rodríguez to make it 2-1 for Atleti at TD Place. He then broke the record in the 80th minute with a touch at the top of the six-yard box that sent the ball toward goal, where O'Connor's attempted clearance was unsuccessful in keeping it out.
With 15 goals and three assists in the CPL campaign, Salter has also set a new league record for most goal contributions in a single season with 18. He passes Forge attacker Tristan Borges, who had 12 goals and five assists in 2019.
Salter has had an incredible season leading Ottawa's attack, starting all 21 of their CPL matches so far this year. Currently, he has a comfortable lead atop the Golden Boot race, with Halifax's Tiago Coimbra the closest follower with 11 goals.
Including his involvements in Atleti's four TELUS Canadian Championship matches, he has a total of 19 goals in 25 appearances.
Perhaps the highlight of Salter's season so far was his contribution to Ottawa's 5-2 win over Valour FC on May 10, when he became the first CPL player to score four goals in one match.
This CPL season has, in general, been a fruitful one for goalscorers. The 248 goals scored in total through 21 matchweeks are 28 more than at the same point in 2024, meaning CPL matches have averaged 2.95 goals per game, up from 2.61.
Salter, a 25-year-old native of Laval, Que. has played for Atlético Ottawa since 2023, and is the team's all-time leading scorer with 31 goals in all competitions. Prior to that, he spent two seasons with the Halifax Wanderers, after seasons with Ligue1 Québec sides CS St-Hubert and AS Blainville, as well as at California State University, Northridge and Dawson College in Québec.
With 41 career CPL regular season goals, Salter is joint-second on the league's all-time career goals list, behind only Pacific's Alejandro Díaz (43).
In 2023, Salter became the first player to move from one CPL to another for a transfer fee, when Ottawa acquired him from the Wanderers. Since then, he has been eager to repay the faith the club has shown in him.
"I'm really grateful for the opportunity Ottawa gave me; they showed me that confidence, that trust from the start," Salter said. "They really showed me that love, and I'm really happy to give it back to them, but also just to the fans, the club, the city. It's been really amazing these past three years, we have an incredible club here, the fans are amazing. It's really joyful, so I'm really grateful to be able to give just some of it back to them."
Salter and Atlético Ottawa currently sit second in the CPL table, three points back of leaders Forge FC with seven games to play in the regular season.
They'll continue their chase for the CPL Shield this Sunday, Sept. 6 against Pacific FC (7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT) at Ottawa's TD Place.
