Soccer Golden Boot Award Winners 1982 – 2006
Top Scorers World Cup Statistics – Rossi, Lineker to Ronaldo & Klose
Aug 21, 2009
The World Cup Golden Boot award has been handed out ever since the first tournament in Uruguay, 1930. Awarded to all FIFA World Cup top scorers, it is a coveted prize for every international striker. In 1982, for sponsorship reasons, the award was renamed the Adidas Golden Shoe, but is still more popularly referred to as the Golden Boot.
After 1994, tie-breakers were introduced in order to provide an outright winner, making for clearer World Cup statistics. Assists are taken into account, and then playing time, to determine the winner in the event of a tie.
Spain 1982 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Paolo Rossi, Italy, 6 Goals
Six goals in Spain made Paolo Rossi the 1982 World Cup top scorer. A hat-trick against Brazil in the quarter-finals put the Golden Boot award within reach, and both goals in the 2-0 semi-final win against Poland brought it even closer. Italy went on to win in the final against West Germany, Rossi adding another goal to make it 6 in total, securing the Adidas Golden Shoe award.
Mexico 1986 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Gary Lineker, England, 6 Goals
English goal-poacher Gary Lineker picked up the Golden Boot award in Mexico 1986. A Group F 3-0 win against Poland, with Lineker the hat-trick hero, helped put England through to the next round. Lineker picked up two more World Cup goals in the next round victory against Paraguay.
England lost in the quarter-finals at the hands of Maradona’s Argentina, Lineker scoring England’s only goal. Maradona scored both goals against England finishing with five for the tournament, just behind Lineker.
Italia 1990 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Salvatore Schillaci, Italy, 6 Goals
Salvatore Schillaci won the 1990 Golden Boot award with 6 World Cup goals in Italy. It would not be unfair to say that it was something of a surprise. Making his international debut in the tournament as a substitute against Austria, he scored the game’s only goal. Given a starting role against Czechoslovakia, ‘Totò’ Schillaci bagged another goal.
Two more were to follow in the knockout rounds, one against Uruguay and another against the Republic of Ireland in the quarter-finals. Italy lost on penalties in the semi-final against Argentina, but Schillaci added one more goal to his tally. Getting his sixth in the third-place game, Schillaci walked away with the Golden Boot award. He was to score only one more goal for Italy after Italia 1990, but secured his place in World Cup statistics.
USA 1994 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Hristo Stoichkov and Oleg Salenko, 6 Goals
The Golden Boot award was tied in 1994. Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) and Oleg Salenko (Russia) both scored six World Cup goals.
Oleg Salenko proved to be a Golden Boot anomaly. Russia failed to progress further than the group stage, with Salenko scoring a penalty in the loss against Sweden before setting a World Cup record of five goals in one game in the 6-1 thrashing of Cameroon. His six goals in these two games got him his share of World Cup Golden Boot history.
Hristo Stoichkov helped Bulgaria to the semi-finals with his World Cup goals. Two penalties against Greece and a goal against Argentina in Group D were followed by a goal against Mexico, helping Bulgaria into the quarter-finals. Stoichkov scored in the win against Germany, but his penalty in the semi-final against Italy was not enough for victory. His six goals, however, made him and Salenko joint World Cup top scorers for 1994.
France 1998 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Davor Suker, Croatia, 6 Goals
Davor Suker’s six World Cup goals pushed Croatia to a third place finish in France 1998, the nation’s best ever World Cup campaign. Suker scored in all but one of Croatia’s seven matches, but his one goal in the semi-final against France was not enough for a win. In the third place match against the Netherlands Suker netted the winning goal in the 35th minute, claiming the Golden Boot award.
South Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Ronaldo, Brazil, 8 Goals
Ronaldo added to his four World Cup goals from France 1998 with a spectacular eight goals in South Korea and Japan. Like Davor Suker, Ronaldo scored in all of Brazil’s games except one, failing to score in the quarter-final against England. In the final against Germany Ronaldo scored twice, his goals claiming another World Cup for Brazil.
Not only did Ronaldo take home the Golden Boot award, he also equaled Pele’s Brazilian World Cup scoring record of 12 goals, a notable achievement in World Cup statistics.
Germany 2006 World Cup Golden Boot Award: Miroslav Klose, Germany, 5 Goals
Miroslav Klose equaled his five World Cup goals from South Korea/Japan with another five in Germany. This time, however, it was enough to win the Golden Boot. Two goals in the opening Group A game against Costa Rica were followed by another two in the final group game against Ecuador.
In the quarter-final against Argentina, Klose’s 80th minute equalizer took the game to penalties which Germany won. However, Germany could not beat Italy in the semi-finals, crashing out in extra time in front of their home support. The Golden Boot award went to Klose, his World Cup goal tally now standing at ten.
Soccer World Cup Statistics – 13 World Cup Goals Still Stands as the Golden Boot Record
No player has yet to match the incredible Golden Boot award tally of Frenchman Just Fontaine. One of the early era Golden Boot winners, Fontaine scored 13 goals in the 1958 World Cup in Sweden to claim the Golden Boot.
For all the World Cup Golden Boot award winners from the Sixties and Seventies take a look at Golden Boot Award Winners 1962 – 1978.
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