France’s Kylian Mbappe scores his second goal against Argentina, yesterday. REUTERS
The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 saw one of the most thrilling finals in the history of the tournament, and the race for the coveted Golden Boot also provided maximum entertainment for fans all over the world.
Ahead of yesterday’s final, both Argentina’s Lionel Messi and France’s Kylian Mbappe were tied on number of goals scored, and were top contenders for the title. However, it was the latter who prevailed after scoring a brilliant hat-trick at the Lusail Stadium, the first World Cup Final hat-trick since 1966.
That took Mbappe’s goal tally to eight as he edged Messi by just one goal to win the prestigious award despite a painful defeat in one of the most thrilling World Cup finals last night.
England’s Geoff Hurst was the last man to score a hat-trick in the World Cup Final.
France’s Kylian Mbappe poses with the Golden Boot award. REUTERS
Mbappe had scored one against Australia and braces against Tunisia and Poland.
The 23-year-old France forward also technically became France’s first-ever Golden Boot winner.
Just Fontaine led the scoring sheets at the 1958 World Cup with a record 13 goals, but the Golden Boot was officially introduced in 1982.
England’s Harry Kane won the award last time in Russia.
Mbappe’s France teammate Antoine Griezmann finished as runner-up to England’s Harry Kane for the Golden Boot at Russia 2018.
The Paris Saint-Germain star claimed the FIFA Young Player Award in 2018 when he was 19 years of age as France edged Croatia to clinch the World Cup in Russia.
France fell 3-3 (4-2 on penalties) in yesterday’s final.
Brazil’s Richarlison, Portugal’s Goncalo Ramos, Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Marcus Rashford (England), Alvaro Morata (Spain), Enner Valencia (Ecuador) and Bukayo Saka (England) had scored three goals each.
The shoe-shaped award was given away for the first time in 1982 under the name Golden Shoe before being named Golden Boot in 2010. The unique shoe-shaped trophy is made of a brass alloy that is electroplated with gold and weighs about a kilogram.
Qatar 2022 has seen 174 goals scored in 64 matches, with an average of 2.69 goals per match.
No player has won the Golden Boot more than once, but Brazilians hold the record for winning the award the most number of times - on five occasions, with Leonidas (1934), Ademir (1950), Garrincha and Vava (1962) and Ronaldo (2002) grabbing honours as top scorers.
Kylian Mbappe looks dejected after receiving the Golden Boot award. REUTERS
Golden Boot winners
1930: Guillermo Stabile (8 goals)
1934: Oldrich Nejedly (5)
1938: Leonidas da Silva (7)
1950: Ademir de Menezes (8)
1954: Sandor Kocsis (11)
1958: Just Fontaine (13)
1962: Florian Albert, Garrincha, Valentin Ivanov, Drazan Jerkovic, Leonel Sanchez and Vava (4)
1966: Eusebio (9)
1970: Gerd Muller (10)
1974: Grzegorz Lato (7)
1978: Mario Kempes (6)
1982: Paolo Rossi (6)
1986: Gary Lineker (6)
1990: Toto Schillaci (6)
1994: Oleg Salenko and Hristo, Stoichkov (6)
1998: Davor Suker (6)
2002: Ronaldo (8)
2006: Miroslav Klose (5)
2010: Thomas Muller (5)
2014: James Rodriguez (6)
2018: Harry Kane (6)
2022: Kylian Mbappe (8)
