The Golden Boot award is given to the football player who scores the maximum number of goals in the football World Cup.
The award gives a player unquestioned prestige at the world stage since he has managed to score more goals than the world’s best at the best football event of the world.
If two players score the same number of goals then it goes to the player with less penalty kicks. If both players have no penalty goals then it goes to the player with more assists and if there is tie here as well then it goes to the player who has been on the ground for lesser time.
England football captain Harry Kane ultimately has won the Golden Boot award in the 2018 FIFA world Cup.
The award, first called as Golden Shoe Award, was started in 1982 when the World Cup was won by Italy and the award was won by Paolo Rossi who scored six goals for his country.
The only other player who won the Golden boot award while his team lifted the World Cup was Brazilian Ronaldo, who scored eight goals in 2002.
Let’s take a quick look at the footballer who won the golden boot award, the country he plays for and the country which won the World Cup.
| Year | Golden Boot winner | Goals scored | Nation | Winner |
| 1982 | Paolo Rossi | 6 | Italy | Italy |
| 1986 | Gary Linekar | 6 | England | Argentina |
| 1990 | Schillachi | 6 | Italy | Germany |
| 1994 | Oleg Salenko | 6 | Russia | Brazil |
| Stoichkov | 6 | Bulgaria | ||
| 1998 | Davor Suker | 6 | Croatia | France |
| 2002 | Ronaldo | 8 | Brazil | Brazil |
| 2006 | Miroslav Klose | 6 | Germany | Italy |
| 2010 | Thomas Muller | 5 | Germany | Spain |
| 2014 | James Rodriguez | 6 | Colombia | Germany |
| 2018 | Harry kane | 6 | England | France |
If one sees the list above, one can make out that in 1994, two players shared the award. This was because both Salenko and Stoichkov had the same number of goals, had one penalty each and also had the same number of assists. Much later in 2006 the rule was started that the one on the field for lesser time will get it.
Salenko has several records to his credit. He has five goals in one game, he is the only Golden boot winner from a team which went out in first round, the six goals scored by him are the only six goals he has scored for his country and he is the only player to win Golden boot in both U20 World Cup and the FIFA World Cup.
Linekar, who shares his birthday with Winston Churchill, had once a remark in report card “Concentrates too much on football, will never make a living out of that.” In a long career of 16 years and 567 games, he never received a yellow or a red card.
After the above trivia journey through the history of the golden shoes/golden boot award and some of the winners let us look at the present tournament.
Kane leads with six goals followed by Romelu Lukaku of Belgium with 4. So (with exception of Rossi and Ronaldo), the curse of the Golden boot continues.
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