The biggest footballing stars on the planet come together in Qatar in November in a fascinating race to win the 2022 Golden Boot award.
Betfred's 2022 Golden Boot betting is headed by England's Harry Kane (7-1), who won the award for the first time in 2018, despite the Three Lions going out at the quarter-finals stage.
French hotshots Kylian Mbappe (8-1) and Karim Benzema (10-1) are charged with fiiring Les Bleus into the history books as the first side to win back-to-back World Cups since Brazil in 1962.
Both will be hugely popular with Golden Boot punters but it's worth remembering that Mbappe will be on penalties for France, which could be a major factor. Of Harry Kane's six goals at the 2018 tournament, only one goal came from open play – as in, not from a corner, free kick or penalty.
Golden Boot Key Contenders
Harry Kane (7-1)
The Spurs and England legend is closing in on Wayne Rooney 's scoring record for England and three goals in Qatar will see Kane overtake the former Manchester United star. Will it be enough for Kane to bag a second successive World Cup Golden Boot award? England probably need to go deep if Kane is going to bag top honours but he is the Three Lions penalty taker - which is a big help - and the England captain goes into the tounament having already bagged 12 Premier Leagie goals for his club this term.
Kylian Mbappe (8-1)
Mbappe became the second-youngest player behind Pele to score in a World Cup final when he netted in the 65th minute against Croatia to win the trophy in 2018 and Golden Boot backers are naturally going to be drawn to one of the world's biggest stars. The 23-year-old scored four goals in that tournamentand has been leading scorer in French domestic football for the last four seasons. He's on penalties and if France go deep in this tournament, which many think they will, then he is going to be a big runner.
Karim Benzema (10-1)
The 2022 Ballon d'Or winner spent a long time in exile from the French national team but he's back and leading the line in devastating style at the grand old age of 34. Benzema has missed a good chunk of the recent La Liga season (only played seven of Real Madrid's 14 matches) through injury but he's gone on record recently saying that he will be fit for France's first game on November 22.
Lionel Messi (12-1)
Messi, regarded by many as the best player ever to play the game, scored seven goals in Argentina's unbeaten qualifying campaign (P17 W11 D6). Argentina reached the World Cup final in 2014 but Messi scored only four goals in the tournament and he's arguably not as prolific now as he used to be - for all that he is still a huge part of what Argentina do. He has never won a World Cup so will be desperate to change that in Qatar but Argentina might just have another player that can push for Golden Boot honours - more on him below.
Neymar (12-1)
Of all the big names going into the 2022 World Cup, Neymar is probably the one performing right at his peak. The 30-year-old has scored 19 goals in 24 appearances for PSG this season, including four in the last five games, and he looked irresistable in the 5-0 win over Auxerre at the weekend. Neymar has scored a remarkable 75 goals in 121 Brazil matches since making his debut at the age of 18. He's the star man for the tournament favourites and is on penalties and free kicks. The 12-1 about Neymar winning the Golden Boot looks value.
Other Notable Contenders
There is a good deal of depth to Golden Boot betting lists with the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Memphis Depay and Richarlison all notable contenders but the one that makes most appeal at bigger odds is 25-1 chance Lautaro Martinez who scored as many goals as Lionel Messi for Argentina during the qualifying despite not taking penalties.
Martinez has already scored nine goals this season for an Inter Milan side that have dropped off the level they have been for the last couple of years and the 25-year-old will be the beneficiary of a whole host of chances created by a star-studded Argentina side that has a live chance of going all the way.
World Cup Golden Boot winner odds
- 7-1 Harry Kane
- 8-1 Kylian Mbappe
- 10-1 Karim Benzema
12-1 Lionel Messi
- 12-1 Neymar
16-1 Cristiano Ronaldo
- 20-1 Romelu Lukaku
- 25-1 Richarlison
- 25-1 Vinicius Junior
- 25-1 Memphis Depay
- 25-1 Lautaro Martinez
- 33-1 bar
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World Cup Penalty Takers
- Argentina - Lionel Messi
- Australia - Jason Cummings
- Belgium - Romelu Lukaku
- Brazil - Neymar
- Cameroon - Vincent Aboubakar
- Canada - Junior Hoilett
- Costa Rica - Celso Borges
- Croatia - Luca Modrič
- Denmark - Christian Eriksen
- Ecuador - Enner Valencia
- England - Harry Kane
- France - Kylian Mbappé
- or Germany - İlkay Gundogan
- Ghana - Jordan Ayew
- Iran - Karim Ansarifard
- Japan - Takumi Minamino
- Mexico - Ernesto Vega
- Morocco - Sofiane Boufal
- Netherlands - Memphis Depay
- Poland - Robert Lewandowski
- Portugal - Cristiano Ronaldo
- Qatar - Akram Afif
- Saudi Arabia - Al-Dawsari
- Senegal - Sadio Mané
- Serbia - Aleksandar Mitrovič
- South Korea - Heung-Min Son
- Spain - Alvato Morata
- Switzerland - Rodriguez
- Tunisia - Wahbi Khazri
- United States - Christian Pulišič
- Uruguay - Luis Suarez
- Wales - Gareth Bale
World Cup Golden Boot Winners
- 1982 Paolo Rossi (Italy) - 6 goals
- 1986 Gary Lineker (England) - 6 goals
- 1990 Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) - 6 goals
- 1994 Oleg Salenko (Russia) & Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) - 6 goals
- 1998 Davor Šuker (Croatia) - 6 goals
- 2002 Ronaldo (Brazil) - 8 goals
- 2006 Miroslav Klose (Germany) - 5 goals
- 2010 Thomas Müller (Germany) - 5 goals
- 2014 James Rodríguez (Colombia) - 6 goals
- 2018 Harry Kane (England) - 6 goals
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