The highly-contested World Cup 2022 Golden Boot race is in full flow, with some of the game's deadliest goal-scorers taking their poaching talents to the biggest stage.
Harry Kane scooped up the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but who will take home the coveted prize this time around?
Kane, for one, remains a strong favourite to win the Golden Boot for the second tournament in a row - something no one has ever done – but he'll have no shortage of competition, with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Robert Lewandowski, Neymar, Memphis Depay, Mehdi Taremi, Enner Valencia, among others, staking their claims for the award.
1 Kylian Mbappe | France | 5 goals
Mbappe is emerging as France's talisman at this year's World Cup. He was France's chief tormentor during Les Bleus' opening two group games, having opened his account in a 4-1 victory over Australia before bagging a match-winning brace against Denmark.
The PSG forward then banged in another brace as France put Poland to the sword with a 3-1 victory in the round of 16.
Needless to say, France's megastar has his eyes firmly set on scooping the highly sought after prize that is the World Cup Golden Boot.
2 Lionel Messi | Argentina | 4 goals
Lionel Messi opened his World Cup account with a well taken-penalty against Saudi Arabia, however, it wasn't enough to prevent them from suffering a surprise defeat in their opening game.
And it had to be him to dig Argentina out of a hole against a dogged Mexico side in a do-or-die clash, as Messi breaks the deadlock with a beautiful goal outside the box.
Messi would mark his 1000th game by giving Argentina a crucial lead against Australia with one of his classic finishes into the bottom corner.
Messi scored his 10th World Cup finals goal with an ice-cold penalty against Netherlands to put his side 2-0 up in the quarter-final.
3 Olivier Giroud | France | 4 goals
Giroud's brace against Australia helped France to victory in their opening match. The AC Milan striker then opened the scoring against Poland in their Round of 16 victory, with a sweet finish into the bottom corner to become France's all-time record goalscorer.
The 36-year-old then restored Les Bleus lead in the 78th-minute with a thundering header past Jordan Pickford from Antoine Griezmann's superb left-wing cross in their narrow 2-1 quarter-final victory against England.
4. Cody Gakpo| Netherlands | 3 goals
Gakpo scored a crucial header to help defeat Senegal 2-0 in Netherlands' opening match. He followed it with an absolute stunner from his weak foot to open the scoring in the draw against Ecuador. The PSV forward scored for the third consecutive game to give his side the lead against Qatar with a well-placed finish in their 2-0 victory against the hosts.
A rousing finish off the cross-bar and a penalty helped the striker reduce the deficit marginally.
Source: GOAL
BDST: 1407 HRS, Dec 11, 2022
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