World Cup Golden Boot: Messi, Rashford, Mbappe and Gakpo vie for top goalscorer at Qatar 2022

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The Golden Boot is the award given to the player who scores the most goals at a World Cup, and the race is on for the prestigious prize at Qatar 2022.

Previous winners include France legend Just Fontaine, who scored 13 in 1954, a record tally at a single World Cup which still stands; Portugal’s Eusebio, who scored nine goals in 1966; England’s Gary Lineker, who scored eight goals in 1986; Ronaldo, who scored eight as Brazil won the 2002 World Cup; and the current England captain Harry Kane who scored six goals last time out in Russia.

Fifa hands out a gold, silver and bronze prize for goalscorers. Previously players with the same number of goals would share awards, but nowadays they are split by tie-breakers: first, who scored the fewest penalties; then who collected the most Fifa-approved assists; then who has played the fewest minutes.

List of top scorers at 2022 World Cup

Alvaro Morata (Spain)

3

1

Kylian Mbappe (France)

3

1

Marcus Rashford (England)

3

0

Cody Gakpo (Netherlands)

3

0

Lionel Messi (Argentina)

3 (1)

1

Enner Valencia (Ecuador)

3 (1)

0

18 players

2

-

Kylian Mbappe has been in sparkling form for France (AP)
Kylian Mbappe has been in sparkling form for France (AP)

List of previous Golden Boot winners

World Cup

Top goalscorer

Goals

Runner(s)-up

Goals

Third place

Goals

1930 Uruguay

Guillermo Stabile

8

Pedro Cea

5

Bert Patenaude

4

1934 Italy

Oldrich Nejedly

5

Edmund Conen, Angelo Schiavio

4

None

1938 France

Leônidas

7

Gyorgy Sarosi, Gyula Zsengeller, Silvio Piola

5

None

1950 Brazil

Ademir

8

Oscar Miguez

5

Alcides Ghiggia, Chico, Estanislau Basora, Telmo Zarra

4

1954 Switzerland

Sandor Kocsis

11

Josef Hugi, Max Morlock, Erich Probst

6

None

1958 Sweden

Just Fontaine

13

Pele, Helmut Rahn

6

None

1962 Chile

Florian Albert, Valentin Ivanov, Garrincha, Vava, Drazan Jerkovic, Leonel Sanchez

4

None

None

1966 England

Eusebio

9

Helmut Haller

6

Valeriy Porkujan, Geoff Hurst, Ferenc Bene, Franz Beckenbauer

4

1970 Mexico

Gerd Muller

10

Jairzinho

7

Teofilo Cubillas

5

1974 West Germany

Grzegorz Lato

7

Andrzej Szarmach, Johan Neeskens

5

None

1978 Argentina[50]

Mario Kempes

6

Teófilo Cubillas

5

Rob Rensenbrink

5

1982 Spain

Paolo Rossi

6

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge

5

Zico

4

1986 Mexico

Gary Lineker

6

Emilio Butragueno, Careca, Diego Maradona

5

None

1990 Italy

Salvatore Schillaci

6

Tomas Skuhravy

5

Roger Milla, Gary Lineker

4

1994 United States

Oleg Salenko, Hristo Stoichkov

6

None

Kennet Andersson, Romario

5

1998 France

Davor Suker

6

Gabriel Batistuta, Christian Vieri

5

None

2002 South Korea/Japan

Ronaldo

8

Miroslav Klose, Rivaldo

5

2006 Germany

Miroslav Klose

5

Hernan Crespo

3

Ronaldo

3

2010 South Africa

Thomas Muller

5

David Villa

5

Wesley Sneijder

5

2014 Brazil

James Rodriguez

6

Thomas Muller

5

Neymar

4

2018 Russia

Harry Kane

6

Antoine Griezmann

4

Romelu Lukaku

4