FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners List (Top Scorers)
The top scorer of each edition of the FIFA WC is awarded with a Golden Boot award. FIFA officially gives an award to the tournament’s top scorer since 1982. Before the ’82 edition, there was no official award though. FIFA used to name the award as “Golden Shoe” from 1982-2006. But in 2010 the authority renamed it as “Golden Boot Award”. GoalTheBall lists the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners list for all-time by year.
World Cup Golden Boot Winners All time
Guillermo Stabile was the inaugural edition’s top scorer although there was no official award then. Italy’s Paolo Rossi received the first-ever FIFA WC Golden Shoe in 1982 scoring 6 goals. Oleg Salenko & Hristo Stoichkov were the shared winners in the 1994 edition as both of them scored 6 Goals. After renaming to Golden Boot, Germany’s Thomas Muller won it for the first time in 2010. In that edition, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder, and Diego Forlan; all of them scored 5 goals as same as Muller. But Muller having the highest number of assists among the 4 contenders, grabbed the award. Kylian Mbappe won the Golden Boot of the latest edition of WC in Qatar when he netted 8 goals. Pele, Maradona, Messi, or Ronaldo; neither of these legends finished as the tournament’s top scorer for even a single time.
FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners List By Year
| Edition & Host | Top Scorer Name | Number of Goals | Country | Received Award Type |
| 2022 (Qatar) | Kylian Mbappé | 8 Goals | France | Golden Boot |
| 2018 (Russia) | Harry Kane | 6 Goals | England | Golden Boot |
| 2014 (Brazil) | James Rodríguez | 6 Goals | Colombia | Golden Boot |
| 2010 (South Africa) | Thomas Müller | 5 Goals | Germany | Golden Boot |
| 2006 (Germany) | Miroslav Klose | 5 Goals | Germany | Golden Shoe |
| 2002 (Korea & Japan) | Ronaldo | 8 Goals | Brazil | Golden Shoe |
| 1998 (France) | Davor Šuker | 6 Goals | Croatia | Golden Shoe |
| 1994 (USA) | Oleg Salenko, Hristo Stoichkov | 6 Goals | Russia, Bulgaria | Golden Shoe (Shared Winner) |
| 1990 (Italy) | Salvatore Schillaci | 6 Goals | Italy | Golden Shoe |
| 1986 (Mexico) | Gary Lineker | 6 Goals | England | Golden Shoe |
| 1982 (Spain) | Paolo Rossi | 6 Goals | Italy | Golden Shoe |
| 1978 (Argentina) | Mario Kempes | 6 Goals | Argentina | No Official Award |
| 1974 (West Germany) | Grzegorz Lato | 7 Goals | Poland | No Official Award |
| 1970 (Mexico) | Gerd Müller | 10 Goals | West Germany | No Official Award |
| 1966 (England) | Eusébio | 9 Goals | Portugal | No Official Award |
| 1962 (Chile) | Flórián Albert, Valentin Ivanov, Garrincha, Vavá, Dražan Jerković, Leonel Sánchez | 4 Goals | Hungary, Soviet Union, Brazil, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Chile | No Official Award (Multiple Top Scorer) |
| 1958 (Sweden) | Just Fontaine | 13 Goals | France | No Official Award |
| 1954 (Switzerland) | Sándor Kocsis | 11 Goals | Hungary | No Official Award |
| 1950 (Brazil) | Ademir | 9 Goals | Brazil | No Official Award |
| 1938 (France) | Leônidas | 7 Goals | Brazil | No Official Award |
| 1934 (Italy) | Oldřich Nejedlý | 5 Goals | Czechoslovakia | No Official Award |
| 1930 (Uruguay) | Guillermo Stábile | 8 Goals | Argentina | No Official Award |
Russia’s Oleg Salenko is the only player to win the award whose team got eliminated in the group stage (1994). In 1962 Chile WC, 6 players finished as the tournament’s top scorer, each scoring 4 times. France’s Just Fontaine holds the record for scoring the most number of goals (13) in a single edition (1958). Since the introduction of an official award in 1982, Italy, England, and Germany have represented the highest number of Golden Shoe/Boot winners (2 from each country).
Counting from the very beginning, Brazil represents the most number of edition-based top scorers (5) including 1 official winner Ronaldo Nazario. Mbappe & Ronaldo are also the 2 official winners with the most number of strikes in a single edition (8 goals). Garrincha, Vava, Mario Kempes, Paolo Rossi, and Ronaldo are the only 5 players so far to finish an edition as the top scorer and also win that specific edition’s World Cup. Paolo Rossi & Ronaldo are the only players to win the World Cup and an official Golden Boot/Shoe award at the very same edition.
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