World Cup Golden Boot race – Battle for goalscoring award begins

Three Lions captain Kane is the current holder of the award after scoring six goals in Russia. Mbappe and Ronaldo were second after finding the net on four occasions, along with Denis Cheryshev, Antonine Griezmann and Romelu Lukaku. The Tottenham star could make history in Qatar by becoming the first player ever to claim the accolade twice. 

However, he will face competition from the likes of Ronaldo and Mbappe, with Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez and Neymar also among the bookies’ favourites. Most are yet to get their quest for the golden boot underway with Argentina and France playing their first matches against Saudi Arabia and Australia respectively later today. 

Frenchman Just Fontaine holds the record for the number of goals scored in a single competition after finding the net an impressive 13 times during the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Hungarian Sandor Kocsis with 11 and German legend Gerd Muller with 10 just behind the forward with those competing in Qatar dreaming of equalising their number. 

BBC presenter Gary Lineker is the only Englishman to have won the golden boot other than Kane, scoring six times in Mexico in 1986. Saka is in pole position to join him after two goals against Iran, with Valencia and Taremi both joining him on that number. 

READ MORE: England fans fume as BBC iPlayer crashes in World Cup clash vs Iran

Current race for the Golden Boot 

Kylian Mbappe (France) 3

Enner Valencia (Ecuador) 3

Cody Gakpo (Netherlands) 3

Marcus Rashford (England) 3

Alvaro Morata (Spain) 3

Lionel Messi (Argentina) 3

Bruno Fernandes (Portugal) 2

Bukayo Saka (England) 2

Medhi Taremi (Iran) 2 

Olivier Giroud (France) 2

Ferran Torres (Spain) 2

Breel Embolo (Switzerland) 2

Andrej Kramaric (Croatia) 2

Cho Gue-sung (South Korea) 2

Aleksandar Mitrovic (Serbia) 2

Mohammed Kudus (Ghana) 2

Salem Aldawsari (Saudi Arabia) 2

Ritsu Doan (Japan) 2

Niclas Fullkrug (Germany) 2

Vincent Aboubakar (Cameroon) 2

Kai Havertz (Germany) 2

Giorgian de Arrascaeta (Uruguay) 2

Julian Alvarez (Argentina) 2

Raheem Sterling (England) 1

Jude Bellingham (England) 1

Jack Grealish (England) 1 

Davy Klaassen (Netherlands) 1

Daley Blind (Netherlands) 1

Denzel Dumfries (Netherlands) 1

Gareth Bale (Wales) 1

Timothy Weah (USA) 1

Saleh Al Shehri (Saudi Arabia) 1

Craig Goodwin (Australia) 1

Adrien Rabiot (France) 1

Ilkay Gundogan (Germany) 1 

Takuma Asano (Japan) 1

Dani Olmo (Spain) 1

Marco Asensio (Spain) 1

Gavi (Spain) 1

Carlos Soler (Spain) 1

Michy Batshuayi (Belgium) 1

Rouzbeh Cheshmi (Iran) 1

Ramin Rezaeian (Iran) 1

Mohammed Muntari (Qatar) 1 

Boulaye Dia (Senegal) 1

Famara Diedhiou (Senegal) 1

Dusan Vlahovic (Serbia) 1

Bamba Dieng (Senegal) 1

Mitchell Duke (Australia) 1

Piotr Zielinski (Poland) 1

Robert Lewandowski (Poland) 1

Andreas Christensen (Denmark) 1

Enzo Fernandez (Argentina) 1

Keysher Fuller (Costa Rica) 1

Zakaria Aboukhlal (Morocco) 1

Abdelhamid Sabiri (Morocco) 1

Marko Livaja (Croatia) 1

Lovro Majer (Croatia) 1

Alphonso Davies (Canada) 1

Jean-Charles Castelletto (Cameroon) 1

Maxim Choupo-Moting (Cameroon) 1

Strahinja Pavlovic (Serbia) 1

Sergej Milinkovic-Savic (Serbia) 1

Mohamed Salisu (Ghana) 1

Casemiro (Brazil) 1

Ismaila Sarr (Senegal) 1

Frenkie de Jong (Netherlands) 1

Moises Caicedo (Ecuador) 1

Kalidou Koulibaly (Senegal) 1

Christian Pulisic (USA) 1

Phil Foden (England) 1

Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia) 1

Mathew Leckie (Australia) 1

Alexis Mac Allister (Argentina) 1

Henry Martin (Mexico) 1

Hakim Ziyech (Morocco) 1

Luis Chavez (Mexico) 1

Romain Saiss (Morocco) 1

Youssef En-Nesyri (Morocco) 1

Ao Tanaka (Japan) 1

Yeltsin Tejeda (Costa Rica) 1

Juan Pablo Vargas (Costa Rica) 1

Haji Wright (USA) 1

Memphis Depay (Netherlands) 1

Serge Gnabry (Germany) 1

Ricardo Horta (Portugal) 1

Kim Young-gwon (South Korea) 1

Hwang Hee-chan (South Korea) 1

Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland) 1

Remo Freuler (Switzerland) 1

Past Winners

1930 – Guillermo Stábile (Argentina)

1934 – Oldřich Nejedlý (Czech)

1938 – Leônidas (Brazil)

1950 – Ademir (Brazil)

1954 –  Sándor Kocsis (Hungary)

1958 –  Just Fontaine (France)

1962 – Flórián Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Garrincha (Brazil), Vavá (Brazil). Dražan Jerković (Yogoslavia), Leonel Sánchez (Chile)

1966 – Eusébio (Portugal)

1970 – Gerd Müller (Germany)

1974 – Grzegorz Lato (Poland)

1978 – Mario Kempes (Argentina)

1982 – Paolo Rossi (Italy)

1986 –  Gary Lineker (England)

1990 – Salvatore Schillaci (Italy)

1994 – Oleg Salenko (Russia), Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria)

1998 – Davor Šuker (Croatia)

2002 – Ronaldo (Brazil)

2006 – Miroslav Klose (Germany)

2010 – Thomas Müller (Germany)

2014 – James Rodríguez (Colombia)

2018 – Harry Kane (England)