FIFA World Cup 2022 Golden Boot: Kylian Mbappe pips Lionel Messi as top goal-scorer
France's Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot award at Qatar 2022 courtesy his hat-trick in the final. Lionel Messi finished second with seven goals.
Football
Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot thanks to a hat-trick in the final of FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, but ended up on the losing side.
Mbappe and Lionel Messi were both on five goals going into the tournament finale between Argentina and France.
The race for the Golden Boot award, presented to the top goalscorer of the tournament, went into extra time at the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar.
Messi put Argentina ahead from the penalty spot and became the first man to score in each of the knockout stages at a single World Cup since the first round of 16 at Mexico 1986.
Angel Di Maria made it 2-0, but Mbappe scored twice in the space of two minutes late in the second half - the first from the spot - to level up the match and go top of the goalscoring charts. Messi scored in the second half of extra time, but France equalised again from the penalty spot as Mbappe completed his hat-trick to make it 3-3. The match went into penalties.
Argentina won the penalty shootout 4-2.
Among all players taking part in Qatar, Germany’s Thomas Mueller had the most World Cup goals heading into the tournament with 10 strikes across four editions (2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022).
Interestingly, another German, Miroslav Klose holds the record for the most goals scored in FIFA World Cups, netting 16 goals in four campaigns (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014).
Klose is closely followed by former Brazilian striker Ronaldo, who has 15 goals to his name.
At the FIFA World Cup 2022, Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo became the first player to score in five consecutive World Cups after opening his account in 2006. The striker scored his first in Qatar converting a spotkick in the opening game against Ghana. Ronaldo has eight goals now.
Cristiano Ronaldo also holds the record for most goals in international football among men.
The Golden Boot race at Qatar 2022 started with Ecuador’s Enner Valencia, who scored twice in the curtain-raiser against hosts Qatar.
There were 172 goals in all during the tournament, an average of 2.68 per game.