Every World Cup has a top ♏sco𝔍rers chart, but an award was first given for the leading scorer in 1982.
Following a tie in 1994 between Oleg Salenko and Hristo Stoichkov, FIFA now uses non-penalty goal♔s as a tie-breaker before trying to split the players base🌳d on their number of assists in the tournament.
As of 2006, if the players are still level, the player who has played the least amount of tim🔴e wins the award.
Here are all of the World Cup G🧸olden Boot winners…
Paolo Rossi (Italy) – 1982
Italy went all the way in 1982, with 🍌Paolo Rossi scoring six goals to pip Karl-Heinz Rummenigge to the Gold🐠en Boot.
Rossi was aw💜arded the ♌1982 Ballon d’Or for his efforts after also winning Serie A with Juventus in 1981-82.
Far from a flat-track bully, Rossi scored three of his six in the semi-final and final, netting a brace in a 2-0 win in 🐈the last four and scoring the ope🐲ner against West Germany.
Gary Lineker (England) – 1986
England suffered an agonisin🎉g exit from the 1986 World Cup thanks to Diego Maradona’s ‘Hand Of God’.
On an individual level, though, it was a⛎ success ౠfor Gary Lineker with his six goals putting him one ahead of Maradona, Careca and Emilio Butragueño.
Lineker formed a superb partnership with Peter Beardsley and became the second Englishman ever to score a World Cup haಌt-trick. He also had a brace against Paraguay, while his sixth goal came in the defeat to Argentina.
Later t🌳hat year, he was named runner-up in 🌠Ballon d’Or voting behind Igor Belanov.
Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) – 1990
Like Lineker, Salvatore Schillaci was second in Ballon d’Or voting following his six goals at t𝄹he 1990 World Cup.
A goa☂l in the third-place playoff earned Schillaci the Golden Boot ahead of Tomáš Skuhravý.
Remarkab𓂃ly, Sch🐼illaci only scored one other international goal after this World Cup having made his debut just weeks before the tournament.
Top scoring and winning the Golden Ball were clearly his career highlights alongside a pair of UEF😼A Cup wins.
Oleg Salenko (Russia) – 1994
Oleg Salenko made just eight appearances f𝔉or Russia, three of which were at the 1994 World Cup.
All six of his international goals came at the World Cup, including five against Camer𝕴oon in the group stage.
Russia fell short of being one of the best third-placed teams and w💯ere eliminated at the group stage.
🧜To this day, Salenko is the only player to win the Golden Shoe/Boot without p꧋laying in the knockout rounds.
Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) – 1994
Powered by Hristo Stoichkov’s six goals, Bulgaria went on a run to the semi-finals i𓂃n the USA in 1994.
Among the best players in the world at the time, Stoichkov had come off a La Liga triumph with♛ Barcelona and went on to win the 1994 Ballon d’Or ahead of Roberto Baggio and Paolo Maldiꦰni.
Davor Šuker (Croatia) – 1998
Once again, finishing top scorer at the World Cup led to a second-place finish in the Ballon d’Or.
Davor Šuker netted in each of the knockout matches and the thꦯird-place playoff to finish one goal ahead of Gabriel Batistuta and Ch꧒ristian Vieri.
Šuker continued playing for Croatia un♈til 2002, when he p🍨layed just 63 minutes at the World Cup. After which, he announced his retirement.
Ronaldo Nazário (Brazil) – 2002
The highest goal total at a World Cup since 1970, Ronaldo Nazário scored eight as Brazil won in Japan and South Korea in 2002. ღ;
O Fenômeno scored the only two goals of the final a𒐪nd the match-winner against Turkey in the last four, while sporting that iconic half-moon haircut.
Returning to the top of his game after major injury issues꧟, Ronaldo was unstoppable in 2002. His performances were the main factor in his second Ballon d’Or win.
Miroslav Klose (Germany) – 2006
Only one player scored more than three goals at the 2006 World Cup. That player was Miroslav Klose, the World Cu🐽p’s all-time leading scorer.
Of his five goals at the tournament, just⛦ one came after the group stage. He scored braces against Costa Rica and Ecuador in the opening phase, before adding a goal against Argentina in the last eight.
Klose finished his career wit🐲h 71 international goals in 137 caps for Die M🅘annschaft.
Thomas Müller (Germany) – 2010
Germany named a youthful squad for the 2010 World Cup, including Toni Kroos, Mesut Özil, Sami Khedira, Manuel Neuer, Jérôme Boateng, Mario Goᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmez and Thomas Müller.
The tournament ushered in a new era for German football as they went on a spectacular run to the semi-final, knocking out Argentin𒆙a and England.
Müller was at the centre 🌸of the success, scoring twice against England and once against Argentina following his first international goal in the win over Australia.
His career has gone from strength to s🥃trength since 2010, of course, and Müller remains an integral member🦋 of the Germany team in 2022.
James Rodriguez (Colombia) – 2014
James Rod⭕riguez was the breakout star of the 2014 World Cup, scoring six goals on Colombia’s route to the quarter-finals.
Among those six was the winner of the Puskas Awar༺d in Rodriguez’s brace against Uruguay, which followed goals in each of the group stage matches.
The Cúcuta native ♎even found the net in Colombia’s last eight loss to Brazil, scoring a late penalty as Los Cafeteros lost 2-1.
Inevitably, transfer rumours accelerated after the tournament, and Rodriguez became the fourth-most expensive player of all-time weeks after the World Cup, joinin𝕴g Real Madrid for ov𝔍er £60 million.
Harry Kane (England) – 2018
Harry Kane f𓂃ollowed in Gary Lineker’s footsteps to become just the second Englishman to top score at a World Cup in 2018.
The T🤪ottenham striker finished with six goals🌳, two more than anyone else, as England recorded their first World Cup semi-final appearance in 28 years.
A bౠrace against Tunisia got the ball rolling for Kane. In thꦗe next match, the Three Lions hammered Panama and he joined Geoff Hurst and Lineker as England’s only World Cup hat-trick scorers.
His final goal came in the 1-1 draw with Colombia in theജ 🌳last 16, and he also netted a penalty in the historic shootout win that followed.
