FOOTBALL
Who will win the Golden Boot in Qatar World Cup?
The World Cup final is almost upon us.
Interestingly, the race for the Golden Boot, which is awarded to the tournament’s top goal scorer, has become incredibly exciting!
There’s currently a tie between one player from Argentina and one from France, meaning that the winner of the award might come from one of these two teams.
Also, there’s a tie for third place between a player from each team as well. So, the Silver Boot and Bronze Boot will also be decided in the match.
Who has scored the most goals so far
Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe enter the final tied for the most goals with five apiece.
Right behind them are Argentina’s Julian Alvarez and France’s all-time leading scorer Olivier Giroud with four goals apiece.
So, it’s highly likely one of these four players will claim the Golden Boot.
If two or more players are tied for the most goals by the end of the final, then it goes to tiebreakers.
The first tiebreaker is the most assists, which currently gives Messi a slight edge over Mbappe. Messi has three assists, while Mbappe has two.
The next tiebreaker is the fewest minutes played, a category in which Mbappe has a sizable advantage over Messi (477 to 570) after he didn’t start in France’s 1-0 Group D finale loss to Tunisia.
Neither Alvarez nor Giroud has yet to tally an assist, but Alvarez has logged 19 fewer minutes to give him the current edge for the Bronze Boot.
Here’s a look at the Golden Boot standings.
1. Lionel Messi, Argentina: 5 goals, 3 assists, 570 minutes played
2. Kylian Mbappe, France: 5 goals, 2 assists, 477 minutes played
3. Julian Alvarez, Argentina: 4 goals, 0 assists, 364 minutes played
4. Olivier Giroud, France: 4 goals, 0 assists, 383 minutes played
Since the award was formally introduced in 1982, there has been one instance when the Golden Boot was shared.
In 1994, Russia’s Oleg Salenko and Bulgaria’s Hristo Stoichkov both finished with six goals to split the honor.
Since 1982, two players have captured the Golden Boot and the World Cup title in the same tournament.
Italy’s Paolo Rossi in 1982 and Brazil’s Ronaldo in 2002.
This could happen a third time on Sunday.