FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winners Lists

The List of Fifa World Cup Golden Boot Winners Lists Since 1930

Guillermo Stabile of Argentina, who led all scorers with eight goals in the inaugural 1930 FIFA World Cup in Uruguay, became the first FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner.

Stabile was born in 1905 and raised in Parque Patricios, an area of Buenos Aires that underwent social and housing renewal in the early 1900s. His talent was immediately apparent when he joined the neighborhood youth team Sportivo Metan. Club Atletico Huracan signed him in 1920 after showing sufficient promise, and in 1924 he was promoted to the first team.

Huracan was in its most prosperous period, winning the Primera Division in 1921 and 1922. Stabile's recruitment to the team, initially as a right winger, propelled the neighborhood club he played for to two additional league championships in 1925 and 1928.

Oldrich Nejedly, a Czech football player who played inside-forward for Sparta Prague for the entirety of his playing career, is regarded as one of Czechoslovakia's finest players. He scored the most goals at the 1934 World Cup.

Nejedly spent his entire playing career at Sparta Prague. He won four Czechoslovak First League championships in 1932, 1936, 1938, and 1939 and the Mitropa Cup in 1935, scoring 162 league goals in 187 games. In 38 games for SK Rakovnk in 1943, 1944, and 1946, he scored 18 goals, giving him a league-high 180 goals in 225 games.

He competed in two World Cups, one in France in 1938 and the other in Italy in 1934. Nejedly scored the most goals in the 1934 World Cup with five goals.

Leonidas helped Brazil advance to the 1938 World Cup semifinals with seven goals. After the match, he was named to the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team and took home the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards.

He played for stretches at Vasco, Botafogo, and Flamengo, three of Rio de Janeiro's major soccer clubs. As Flamengo's first black player, he gave the team a working-class image and made it the most well-liked team in Brazil.

Leonidas Da Silva's family in Sao Cristovao anticipated he would become a doctor or lawyer during his formative years. Even if it seems funny to us now, back then, Brazilian youth were aggressively discouraged from pursuing careers in soccer. The child had different plans. He liked the game so much, yet all that was on his mind was playing it.

Ademir, a center-forward for Brazil, won the Golden Boot at the 1950 World Cup after tallying eight goals. He aided the host country Brazil in reaching the last round of the group stage before they lost shockingly to Uruguay 2-1 and took second place.

He is best remembered for his performance during his country's hosting of the 1950 World Cup. He was the competition's best scorer, joining Zizinho and Jair in a standout attacking trio, earning the Golden Boot. He scored the first goal in a match at the Maracana stadium. There is some discrepancy in the records regarding how many goals Ademir scored; some sources, including the reputable RSSSF, list seven, while others list nine.

Despite this accomplishment, he could not help Brazil defeat Uruguay in the match that mattered the most; this led to a national tragedy known as the Maracanazo.

During the 1954 World Cup, Sandor Kocsis of Hungary scored 11 goals, including two hat-tricks. He was well remembered for his head goals, which helped Hungary go to the final that year, where they fell to West Germany.

Gergely Marosi, a well-known Hungarian journalist and authority on all things Magyar, claims that Kocsis was so excellent in his prime that his goal-scoring prowess will never be matched again. Marosi told These Football Times: "His 75 goals in 68 matches for the national team is, quite simply, ridiculous."

Records are meant to be broken, especially that irresistibly snappable Milli Vanilli vinyl, but sometimes it's better to conserve energy. There is undoubtedly no storm perfect enough to top Just Fontaine's World Cup record of 13 goals, which he set with France in 1958. Only once in the previous nine tournaments, when Ronaldo scored eight goals in 2002, has a player scored even half as many goals.

Fontaine was a slick and impressively two-footed finisher by nature. There are similarities with Gerd Muller, the greatest goal scorer of all time: both were short men with incredible power, especially in their tree-trunk thighs, and both had an uncanny awareness and calmness in their domain, the 18-yard box.

Six players shared the Golden Boot in the 1962 World Cup after scoring four goals. While Florian Albert, Valentin Ivanov, Drazan Jerkovic, and Leonel Sanchez scored four goals, the Brazilian players Vava and Garrincha scored one to help their country win the World Cup. Throughout the course of the campaign, 54 different players scored a total of 89 goals.

When Eusebio was 15 years old and playing in Mozambique, a former Juventus goalkeeper who is now a scout first noticed him.

However, his mother, who had assumed exclusive custody of him after his father's passing, rejected all approaches. Despite the plan's failure, the Black Pearl's career was already taking shape. Eusebio started playing for a neighborhood amateur team called Os Brasileiros (The Brazilians), which was typical given that he would later be compared to some of the great players he tried to imitate as a youngster. In the streets of Maputo, his hometown in Mozambique, he played soccer with balls made from rolled-up socks or newspapers.

Eusebio established himself as a legend at Benfica, scoring 727 goals in just 715 games. He won 11 league championships, five league cups, a European Cup (1962), and 9 Lisbon Cups during his 14 seasons with the team. While he was with the team, Benfica finished second in the European Cup three times. He was Benfica's best player, and the world marveled at his journey from Mozambique to a prominent role for one of Portugal's largest clubs.

Despite Brazil winning the 1970 World Cup, Gerd Muller scored an astonishing ten goals for West Germany. He played for West Germany throughout his career, scoring 68 goals in 62 games, and for almost 40 years, held the record for most goals scored in the nation before Miroslav Klose overtook him in 2014.

In addition, he scored twice as West Germany defeated the Soviet Union in the 1972 European Championship final. Throughout more than 62 international appearances, he scored 68 goals for his nation or more than one goal per game.

With Bayern Munich, Muller was also a titan on the national and European club stage, where his scoring ratio was just marginally less astounding. He was the Bundesliga's top scorer seven times during his 15 years with the team. He also assisted Bayern in winning four league championships, three European Cups, and a European Cup Winners' Cup. He finished his career as the Bundesliga's all-time leading scorer with 365 goals in 427 games.

Grzegorz Lato, a Polish winger who scored seven goals at the 1974 World Cup, is the only player to earn the Golden Boot. Lato scored the lone goal against Brazil for Poland to achieve a third-place finish in the competition.

The striker started his career at the club of his dreams, Stal Mielec when he was just 19 years old. Right away, he displayed his primary quality: speed. Lato was one of the 1970s' swiftest wingers. He was "the fastest of the fastest," in fact. He used that power during the World Cup, which is how he rose to become one of the competition's top performers.

During the 1978 World Cup, Argentina forward Mario Kempes scored six goals, including two against the Netherlands in the championship match. His two goals, which helped Argentina win the trophy, were his final ones at the international level.

Mario Alberto Kempes Chiodi was born on July 15, 1954, in Bell Ville, in Córdoba, Argentina. His father gave him the desire to play football at a young age.

Kempes recalled his early years by saying, "Back in Argentina, it was all about playing football and going to school. The greatest dream of any child born in Argentina was to play football and to represent their country.

Paolo Rossi, a forward for Italy, guided his team to victory at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. After being named the tournament's best player, he scored six goals to win the Golden Ball and the Golden Boot. With nine goals overall, he is currently tied for the most goals scored by Italy in World Cup history.

Due to match-fixing allegations, Paolo Rossi was given a three-year suspension from playing competitive football in 1980. As a result, Italy's top striker had to watch his country exit the tournament and place fourth.

After his suspension was prematurely lifted, Rossi could not play until the end of the 1981–82 season, and during that time, he only made three appearances for Juventus, one of which resulted in a goal. However, the forward's predatory instinct was undeniable, and even though he lacked any level of match fitness, he was sent to the 1982 World Cup as the main goal-scoring option for his country.

Rossi only participated in three games between 1980 and the beginning of the 1982 World Cup. Yet, he managed to make history for his proud country, assist I Nerazzurri in winning their third World Cup, and win the 1982 Ballon d'Or.

Currently, Gary Lineker is the only man from England's side to have won the Golden Boot, having done so in the 1986 World Cup. In his five appearances, he scored six goals, including the second-fastest hat trick in FIFA World Cup history against Poland.

Gary Lineker, a striker, born in Leicester, has scored more goals at the World Cup than any other Englishman. England's 1990 World Cup quarterfinal also featured the Golden Boot winner from 1986. He also won Division One's top scorer three times, each time with a different team.

His professional career began with his hometown club in Division Two. Throughout his seven seasons with Leicester City, Lineker was twice promoted. Still, after tallying 29 goals in the 1984–1985 campaign, defending champions Everton finally convinced him to leave Filbert Street for $800,000. Lineker was already well-known for his skill against the opponents at this point. The striker was among the most sought-after players because of his quickness, excellent pace, and "poacher's instinct."

Salvatore Schillaci, better known as Toto, was an Italian attacker who scored six goals in Italia '90. He received the Golden Ball as the tournament's player of the competition and assisted the host nation in finishing in third place.

Only seven goals were scored by the forward for Italy, but six of those goals came at the 1990 World Cup, giving "Toto" the Golden Boot and the Golden Ball.

West Germany won the 1990 World Cup. But Salvator Schillaci owned the competition. Schillaci acknowledged that he struggled with the limelight that came with his World Cup 90 exploits, and his late-career transfer to Japan was an effort to get away from the ongoing media attention.

After scoring six combined goals, two players shared the Golden Boot award at the USA's 1994 World Cup. Oleg Salenko made a World Cup record with five goals in a single game in Russia's 6-1 victory over Cameroon and once against Sweden. Hristo Stoichkov assisted Bulgaria with six goals as they advanced to the World Cup semifinals. The only player to have earned the Golden Boot while playing for a side that was ousted from the World Cup finals during the group stage is Salenko.

Croatia's third-place finish at the 1998 World Cup in France was their best under Davor Suker's leadership. He won the Silver Ball as the World Cup's second-best player behind Brazil's Ronaldo after scoring six goals in seven games.

He scored just once in 24 appearances as a substitute during his tenure with the Gunners, which is probably the best way to characterize his time there despite an excellent goals-to-starts ratio.

Suker went to Arsenal in 1999 from Real Madrid, where Nicolas Anelka had been heading the previous summer. Since moving from Seville to the Spanish powerhouse in 1996, he has scored 110 goals in 220 games.

Ronaldo led all scorers at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, earning the Golden Boot and leading his team to a fifth championship.

He finished second in the competition for the Golden Ball honor for the best player at the event, and he dedicated his third FIFA Player of the Year award to the medical staff that helped him recover from a knee injury so he could participate in the finals.

Ronaldo had reclaimed his position as the greatest goal scorer in football, and his enigmatic grin and brilliant feet lit up TV screens worldwide.

Miroslav Klose earned the Golden Boot in his second World Cup by scoring five goals, leading his team to the semifinals, and triumphing in the third-place play-off. In the group stage, he scored four times, including back-to-back goals against Costa Rica and Ecuador.

His goal-scoring prowess continued in Germany in 2006, where he opened the season with a brace against Costa Rica and added three more goals to bring his career tally to ten.

Klose scored once in the first game of the 2010 tournament in South Africa before adding three more goals, two of which came against Argentina in the quarterfinals, to reach 14.

At the 2010 World Cup, Thomas Muller scored five goals for the German national team, helping them to a third-place finish. Muller earned the Silver Boot award for the 2014 World Cup after scoring five goals that helped Germany win the tournament.

Muller has made little headway in his unstoppable ascent to the top of the world game since making his professional debut for FC Bayern München in 2009. The 33-year-old is already among the most well-known players in the Bundesliga after winning the World Cup with Germany and a treble with the Bavarians.

James Rodriguez, a midfielder for Colombia, won the Golden Boot after scoring six goals during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. However, his team was eliminated by the home nation in the quarterfinals.

He has won nine league championships, the Europa League, the Champions League three times, and four domestic cup competitions.

Rodriguez is a talented player who can fill in behind the front line anywhere. He is recognized as one of soccer's most inventive players and possesses the skill to score from inside and outside the penalty area.

The Tottenham star, who scored six goals to help England advance to the semi-finals, was in excellent form in Russia. In the group stages, Kane was unstoppable, scoring twice against Tunisia and then three times against Panama.

He added another goal in the round of 16 victories over Colombia to round off a strong tournament overall.