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Winning the Golden Boot in a tournament is one of the most coveted achievements for a forward. Winning the award at the FIFA World Cup, however, is something the majority can only dream of.
Legendary forwards of the past like Miroslav Klose and Ronaldo Nazario have set multiple editions of the FIFA World Cup alight with their goalscoring exploits. The pair are the all-time leading goalscorers at World Cups with 16 and 15 goals respectively. They both won the Golden Boot once.
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Since the turn of the millennium, the five Golden Boots won have been shared by South American and European nations.
Germany performed the best, giving us two consecutive winners of the Golden Boot in the 2006 (Miroslav Klose, five goals) and 2010 (Thomas Muller, five goals) editions. Harry Kane won the prestigious award at the World Cup in Russia in 2018 for his six goals.
On that note, let's have a look at how the top five favorites are ranked going into the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
#5. Neymar (Brazil)
Neymar has been the cornerstone of the Brazilian national football team for the better part of a decade now. He has scored 75 goals and provided 54 assists in just 121 appearances for the Selecao so far.
Neymar has made a blistering start to the club season with Paris Saint-Germain, scoring 15 goals and providing 12 assists already in just 20 games across competitions. He scored four goals before suffering a brutal vertebra injury in the 2014 edition and scored just two in 2018.
He is ranked fifth according to several outlets, including Sports Illustrated, which has placed him just below his superstar teammate for PSG.
#4. Lionel Messi (Argentina)
With many believing this edition to likely be Messi's last appearance at the World Cup, the pressure on Messi's shoulders has never been greater.
Messi has racked up 91 goals and provided 52 assists in 165 games for the Argentina national team so far. He is their all-time leading goalscorer, only adding to the pressure already put on him. He scored one goal in the 2006 edition, failed to score in 2010, returned in 2014 with four goals, and managed just one goal in 2018.
However, Argentina have a much stronger and well-balanced squad this time around with ample support for Messi. The diminutive forward has the same odds as the next player on the list on most websites but is likely to play a deeper role, which is why he takes fourth place.
#3. Karim Benzema (France)
Benzema is the current holder of the prestigious Ballon d'Or award after winning the UEFA Champions League and La Liga with Real Madrid in the 2021-22 season. He enters this competition as one of the favorites to win the Golden Boot, having scored 44 goals in 46 games last season and six in 12 this season.
Benzema has also scored 37 goals for France in 97 appearances and will look to add to his tally. The Telegraph ranks him as the third favorite to win the award.
#2. Kylian Mbappe (France)
Mbappe has been in scintillating goalscoring form this season, going at nearly one goal per game with 19 goals in 20 appearances for PSG so far. He has also provided five assists.
Aged at just 23, Mbappe has already scored 28 goals for France in 59 appearances. He has scored four goals in just seven appearances at the FIFA World Cup and will be looking to add to that tally in Qatar. He enters the competition as the second favorite, narrowly edged by the favorite to win the Golden Boot.
#1. Harry Kane (England)
Harry Kane enters the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar as the favorite to win the Golden boot as per several websites, including NBC Sports. He won the award in the previous edition in Russia in 2018, scoring six goals in the process.
This seems like a fair shout and a strong one at that. Considering England's playing style is heavily reliant on a central attacking option, Kane should be in with a good chance of scoring goals if England play their cards right. He will look for help from his teammates to add another Golden Boot to his collection.
