2022 World Cup Golden Boot Winner: Dazzling Duo Take Center Stage

Leo Messi vs Kylian Mbappe

France and Argentina have reached the finals of the FIFA World Cup 2022. On Sunday, Lionel Messi will step out for the last time in an Argentina shirt in the quadrennial competition at the Lusail Iconic Stadium. This will be Messi’s final shot at winning the World Cup, a trophy that has eluded his glittering cabinet in his illustrious career.

On the other side, we have France and their power-packed lineup that have demolished their opponents while reaching the final of the tournament. France’s only below-par performance came against Morocco in the semifinals of the tournament, where their defense looked exposed against the direct attacking threat of Hakim Ziyech, Sofiane Boufal and Youssouf En Neysri.

Messi took his tally to five goals for the tournament as he scored the opener from the penalty spot in the semifinal against Croatia. Mbappe didn’t score in the quarterfinals against England or the semifinal victory over Morocco. Messi and Mbappe will go head to head as France face Argentina in the World Cup final on Sunday.

The Golden Boot is awarded to the player who scores the most goals at a World Cup. If two players finish with the same number of goals, the award goes to the player with more assists. If there is still more than one player, the tiebreaker since 2006 goes to the player who has played the least amount of minutes at the tournament.

Messi and Mbappe are priced at -110 and +105, respectively, with the latest soccer odds. It’s crazy to think that one of the two players will earn all three awards: The champion with their country, Golden Boot and Golden Boot so if you’re betting online, you should definitely go with Mbappe here because he will surely give Argentina’s backline huge headaches.

Golden Boot Outsiders

Right behind Messi and Mbappe are two of their compatriots who are definitely in the mix: Olivier Giroud and Julian Alvarez. Both are on four goals, with Manchester City’s Alvarez scoring a brace against Croatia in the semifinal. Both players are priced at +1000 but we don’t expect them to score twice without Messi or Mbappe finding the back of the net, so we won’t include them in our soccer picks and parlays.

With all but four teams left in the tournament, there are only two other potential outsiders who have a shot at challenging the top four and they’re both playing in Saturday’s third-place match. Croatia striker Andrej Kramaric and Morocco’s Youssef En-Nesyri can theoretically catch up, but they both would have to score four goals to surpass Messi or Mbappe.