An artist adds final touches to a painting featuring football players Argentina's Lionel Messi and Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo in Amritsar at the 2026 Fifa World Cup tournament.
Kylian Mbappé. Harry Kane. James Rodríguez. Thomas Müller. Miroslav Klose.
What do these five iconic footballers have in common?
They are, of course, the winners of the Golden Boot at the last five Fifa World Cups. For two decades, the blueprint for winning the tournament's ultimate individual prize remained remarkably consistent: hover around the six-goal mark, navigate a strict 32-team grid, and hope for a multi-goal explosion along the way. Even Mbappé’s sensational eight-goal haul in Qatar 2022 required a historic World Cup final hat-trick to break the mould.
But the footballing jamboree currently unfolding across Mexico, the US and Canada is proving to be an entirely different beast.
