All Time Football World Cup Golden Boot Winners
The beauty of football, and one of the reasons that it is the most popular sport in the World is the fact that it is a true team game, a sport where individual players come together to produce results that make supporters and nations proud of who they follow and the countries that they come from. However, it must also be said that there are certain individuals in each generation of football that, through their own incredible talents and achievements, elevate the game and therefore must be recognised on an individual basis. One such award that recognises individual achievement in football is the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot.
What Is The Golden Boot In Soccer?
The Golden Boot Award is an individual honour that is presented to the player who scores the most goals at a FIFA World Cup tournament
Interesting Facts & Information Regarding The Golden Boot
The first time an official award for top scorer was introduced was the 1982 FIFA World Cup, where it was given the name Golden Shoe. It was given its current name, the Golden Boot, before the start of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
If more than one player ends a World Cup tournament with the same number of goals at the top of the list, then the eventual winner is decided by how many assists that player has also contributed to his team throughout the tournament. If that process still does not find a clear winner, then the last tiebreaker, introduced in 2006, comes down to which player has played the least amount of time, therefore scoring and assisting more efficiently than his rival candidate.
Interestingly, the FIFA Golden Boot award has only been won by a player from the winning team of the tournament four times in its 88-year history.
Brazil is the nation who have produced the most Golden Boot award winners, Leonidas in 1938, Ademir in 1950, a tie between Garrincha and Vava in 1962 and Ronaldo in 2002.
With six goals, Oleg Solenko of Russia won the Golden Boot for the 1994 USA World Cup, and in doing so, became the first and so far only player to have won the award whilst playing for a team who were knocked out of the tournament in the group stages, the earliest possible time for exit.
Who Was The Last FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winner?
The 2014 FIFA World Cup took place in Brazil, and the winner of the Golden Boot award for the tournament was striker James Rodriguez of Colombia. Rodriguez scored six goals during the tournament and Colombia were eliminated by the host country in the quarter-final stage. Germany’s Thomas Muller won the Silver Boot with five goals, and Brazil’s Neymar picked up the Bronze Boot with four goals.
Since the introduction of the Golden Shoe/Boot the winners have been Paolo Rossi (Italy), Gary Lineker (England), Salvatore Schillachi (Italy), Oleg Salenko (Russia) and Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) – both in 1994, Davor Suker (Croatia), Ronaldo (Brazil), Miroslav Klose (Germany), Thomas Muller (Germany), and James Rodriguez (Colombia).
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