The Golden Boot is one of the most prestigious awards given out to players during the FIFA World Cup. Many players have aspired for it but few were lucky enough to earn the gold. 

For sports bettors, this is a time when they can follow their favorite players to determine who might score the most. And we have plenty of insight into the possible Golden Boot winners of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

FIFA World Cup 2022 Potential Golden Boot Winner

The FIFA World Cup was first played in the year 1930. The Golden Boot or the Golden Shoe award has been given out to the top goal scorers of the competition since 1982. It had actually been renamed the Golden Boot in 2010 when it was won by Thomas Muller.

The rules for the award are simple enough. The player who averages the highest number of goals scored in the competition will win. But what about when two players have the same number of goals and they tie for the highest?

Well, in that case, the winner is decided by penalties. But not the player with more penalties, the winner is the player who has scored fewer goals from penalties.

And as a second tie-breaker, the number of assists is counted. But there are a lot of technicalities with this. And usually, the tournament doesn’t end in such rigid results.

Over the years, there have been many awards given out during an edition of the World Cup such as the Golden Ball or Ballon D’or. But none as prestigious as the Golden Boot. Every forward strives to score the highest amount of goals in this event. 

Odds for the Golden Boot

The odds we’re going to be listing for the possible Golden Boot winners are courtesy of Betfinal. And there are tons of odds for many players. But we won’t be going into detail about them all.

Let’s first list the odds for the top 15 players that are top on the list to win the Golden Boot:

Player	Odds	National Team
Harry Kane	8.00	England
Kylian Mbappe	9.00	France
Karim Benzema	12.00	France
Neymar Jr	12.00	Brazil
Lionel Messi	12.00	Argentina
Cristiano Ronaldo	13.25	Portugal
Romelu Lukaku	19.00	Belgium
Memphis Depay	23.00	Netherlands
Vinicius Junior	23.00	Brazil
Lautaro Martinez	23.00	Argentina
Andrade de Richarlison	26.00	Brazil
Diogo Jota	31.00	Portugal
Gabriel Jesus	31.00	Brazil
Raheem Sterling	31.00	England
Antoine Griezmann	34.00	France

 

Now, to be fair, you can discard all of the players after the first five if you want to bet on the winner. But one thing you should remember is that odds tend to fluctuate a lot. And the FIFA World Cup is a tournament that has a very short duration.

So, although it appears as though Harry Kane is likely to lift the Golden Boot this year, circumstances might result in a different player winning. You can find updated odds at the time of betting on the website of the sportsbook where you’re placing your bets.

Our Top Picks to Win the Golden Boot

This one is going to be an interesting section because it’s about our picks for the winner. Odds aren’t always correct and there are multiple other factors that come into consideration for a player to score the most goals in a tournament.

We tried to be as unbiased as possible with these selections. And we’ll also give you reasons as to why some players have been left out.

In the opinion of our experts, the odds are pretty spot on for Harry Kane. He has done tremendously for Tottenham Hotspurs, his club. And he plays a solid game for the national team of England as well.

But England tends to have a bad combination of players in the international squad. And that has a chance of hindering Kane’s game as well.

Kylian Mbappe has a very high chance of winning his first ever Golden Boot this time around. The French national team has some beasts along with him and Karim Benzema, who also has pretty high odds.

But we don’t have high hopes for Benzema since he has become injury prone towards the end of club football ahead of the World Cup. If Benzema can stay out of injury, he will be a force to be reckoned with.

And contrary to the odds, we believe that Cristiano Ronaldo has a much higher chance of winning the Golden Boot ahead of Lionel Messi. He may have come along in age but when he has his day, he can win a match all on his own.

While Messi is a spectacular force in his own right, he has retained more of a play-maker role at the moment rather than that of a goal-scorer. 

Influencers for Golden Boot Winner

In this part, by influencers, we mean the play-makers or the players who are the driving force behind each goal. Harry Kane might score a stunner in the 90th minute, but if Bellingham doesn’t push the ball toward him, he might never score it.

Kevin De Bruyne is another great assist provider for the Belgian national team and the same can be said for Luka Modric for the Croatian team. Luka Modric is a gem in the football world and for both his club and nation alike, he is indispensable when it comes to controlling the game.

A couple of underrated players who can enormously influence the game are Leandro Trossard and Youri Tielemans of the Belgian national team.

These players are all integral to the achiever of this award since they can influence each and every goal scored in a game. And considering the fact that the Golden Boot award is given to the highest scorer, even someone who scores a lot of goals in the Group Stages is capable of winning it.

Golden Boot Winners of Past Editions

Although the award didn’t exist back then, the highest goal scorer of the first ever World Cup played in 1930 was Guillermo Stábile. And he played for the host, Uruguay, who incidentally also happened to win the tournament.

The first winner of the “Golden Shoe,” as the award was called in 1982 was the Spanish forward Paolo Rossi. And finally, Germany’s very own Thomas Muller won it in 2010 when it was renamed as the “Golden Boot.”

The most recent Golden Boot winner from the 2018 edition was Harry Kane and he has a good chance of winning it again, as we said. There is also a Silver and Bronze Boot for the respective 2nd and 3rd winners. And these were awarded to Antoine Griezmann and Romelu Lukaku in 2018.  

Will the Other Boot Drop?

We’re sure you have your own opinions about the Golden Boot winner of the FIFA World Cup 2022. Although the odds aren’t always accurate, you can find the most updated ones on the Betfinal website. So, if you’re planning on betting on the award, don’t forget to take a look at those.