From Guillermo Stabile to Miroslav Klose, to Harry Kane, my FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winners list takes a look at all the finest players to have ever played the game and gone home with the Award.
What is Golden Boot in World Cup? How do you win the Golden Boot World Cup?
The Golden Shoe Award … as it used to be called, goes to the highest goalscorer of any FIFA World Cup year.
Before 1982, i.e. the period between 1930 and 1978, an Award was never given. The players then were just referred to and ranked as top goalscorers.
The first time an award was given was in 1982 and it was as at that time known as Golden Shoe.
Not until the 2010 World Cup hosted by an African country (South Africa) for the first time that the Award was rechristened Golden Boot.
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Since FIFA on its own also sometimes lists the top goalscorers of those years among the Golden Boot winners, then I can do same in my article. You don’t need to take me to the law courts for it. LOL…
The World Cup Golden Boot 2018 (adidas sponsored) went to England's Harry Kane with six goals.
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2010 World Cup Golden Boot was the turn of Germany's Thomas Muller with five goals. He wasn't the only scorer with that number of goals. You will see all others later in this article.
So then who won the Golden Boot Award at FIFA World Cup 2014?
A fine young teenage sensation, James Rodriguez made the 2014 World Cup Golden Boot his. As a midfielder, the Colombian scored six loud goals.
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Who has won the most World Cup Golden Boots?
No one.
Everyone's name on the list appears only once. No one's ever received the award more than once.
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World Cup – Top Goalscorers
1930 – Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) – 8 Goals
1934 – Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia) – 5 Goals
1938 – Leonidas (Brazil) – 7 Goals
1950 – Ademir (Brazil) – 8 Goals
1954 – Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) – 11 Goals
1958 – Just Fontaine (France) – 13 Goals
1962 – Florian Albert (Hungary), Garrincha (Brazil), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia), Leonel Sanchez (Chile), Vava (Brazil) – 4 Goals
1966 – Eusebio (Portugal) – 9 Goals
1970 – Gerd Muller (Germany) – 10 Goals
1974 – Grzegorz Lato (Poland) – 7 Goals
1978 – Mario Kempes (Argentina) – 6 Goals
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FIFA Golden Boot Winners List – Golden Shoe Award
1982 – Paolo Rossi (Italy) – 6 Goals
1986 – Gary Lineker (England) – 6 Goals
1990 – Salvator Schillachi (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
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FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners List – Golden Boot Award
2010 – Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Thomas Muller (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain) – 5 Goals
2014 – James Rodriguez (Colombia) – 6 Goals
2018 – Harry Kane (England) – 6 Goals
To conclude my FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winners list, here is what happens if Golden Boot is tied in the World Cup.
Once another player(s) has the same number of goals, the tie-breaker (since 1994) goes to the player with fewer goals scored from penalties.
If after that there is still more than one player with the same number of goals, the next tie breaker goes to the person with more assists. There’s a BUT here … FIFA’s Technical Study Group will be the decider if an assist is to be counted as such.
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But if there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has played the least amount of time, which translates to a higher goal average. This has been applied since 2006.
This article was most recently revised and updated 3 years ago
