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
Player |
Goals (penalties) |
Assists |
|---|---|---|
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 |
- |
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 |
