The Golden Boot was up for grabs as Argentina faced France in the World Cup final, with four players still able to win the prestigious top goalscorer prize when the game kicked off in Qatar on Sunday.
All eyes were on Lionel Messi as the Argentina captain won the World Cup for the first time on his final appearance at the tournament, though the 35-year-old just missed out on claiming the Golden Boot for the first time.
Messi came into the World Cup final level with France star Kylian Mbappe on five goals, before the Argentine scored twice while his Paris Saint-Germain teammate netted a hat-trick in arguably the greatest final of all time. Those goals sealed the Golden Boot for Mbappe, 23.
Argentina’s Julian Alvarez was still in contention to win the Golden Boot at kick-off as he came into the final on four goals, as did France striker Olivier Giroud – who became his nation’s all-time leading scorer during the Qatar World Cup – but he was substituted during the first half.
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
Player |
Goals (penalties) |
Assists |
|---|---|---|
Kylian Mbappe (France) |
8 (2) |
2 |
Lionel Messi (Argentina) |
7 (4) |
3 |
Olivier Giroud (France) |
4 |
0 |
Julian Alvarez (Argentina) |
4 |
0 |
Goncalo Ramos (Portugal) |
3 |
1 |
Alvaro Morata (Spain) |
3 |
1 |
Marcus Rashford (England) |
3 |
0 |
Bukayo Saka (England) |
3 |
0 |
Cody Gakpo (Netherlands) |
3 |
0 |
Richarlison (Brazil) |
3 |
0 |
Enner Valencia (Ecuador) |
3 (1) |
0 |
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 |
