Going into the finals of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe were the favorites to win the Golden Boot award, given to the top goal-scorer of the tournament. Both men had 5 goals each in the tournament before the blockbuster final. However, it went down to the very last kick in the final to decide the winner of the tournament and the Golden Boot winner as well. Lionel Messi scored a brace to help his side survive the Kylian Mbappe hat-trick scare. However, the French forward created history scoring a hat-trick in the final of the World Cup and won the Golden Boot award. It was Messi’s final shot at winning the World Cup, a trophy that has eluded his glittering cabinet in his illustrious career.
Below is the list of FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winners (inputs from Xinhua):
1930 – Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) – 8 goals
1934 – Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia) – 5 goals
1938 – Leonidas (Brazil) – 7 goals
1950 – Ademir (Brazil) – 9 goals
2022 World Cup top scorer (8 goals)
First hat-trick in men’s final since 1966
Sixth-highest scorer in competition history (12 goals)Mbappé is just 23… pic.twitter.com/e8LVLJOqEfUEFA EURO 2024 (@EURO2024) December 18, 2022
1954 – Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) – 11 goals
1958 – Just Fontaine (France) – 13 goals
1962 – Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Garrincha (Brazil), Vava (Brazil), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia), Leonel Sanchez (Chile) – 4 goals
1966 – Eusebio (Portugal) 9 goals
1970 – Gerd Müller (West Germany) – 10 goals
1974 – Grzegorz Lato (Poland) – 7 goals
1978 – Mario Kempes (Argentina) – 6 goals
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 Suker (Croatia) – 6 goals
2002 – Ronaldo (Brazil) – 8 goals
2006 – Miroslav Klose (Germany) – 5 goals
2010 – Thomas Muller (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay) – 5 goals
2014 – James Rodríguez (Colombia) – 6 goals
2018 – Harry Kane (England) – 6 goals
2022 – Kylian Mbappe (France) – 8 goals (With IANS inputs)