Who won the FIFA World Cup Golden Boot 2022? Kylian Mbappe claims top goal scorer award in Qatar as France lose title to Argentina

Kylian Mbappe's France missed in their chance to defend their World Cup title as Didier Deschamps' side lost on penalties after a simply incredible Qatar 2022 final against Argentina

Mbappe and Lionel Messi battled out arguably the greatest World Cup final of all time, as Messi's two goals were upstaged by Mbappe's incredible hat trick in Lusail.

However, despite Mbappe's game-changing moments, he ended up on the losing side, as Messi lifted the World Cup for the first time.

As Messi departs the World Cup stage, the 23-year-old Mbappe's eight goals in Qatar underlined his potential as the 35-year-old Messi's successor, as the PSG speedster became the first player since 1966 to score three World Cup final goals.

MORE: Who won the 2022 FIFA World Cup? Final score, result and highlights from Qatar title decider

Who won World Cup Golden Boot 2022?

Despite missing out on a second successive World Cup title, Mbappe's own performances in Qatar have marked him out as a generational talent.

After scoring in France's 4-1 Group D opening win over Australia, he made the crucial difference with two goals in the 2-1 victory over Denmark, to confirm France's spot in the Round of 16.

Another impressive double against Poland, put him in the running to challenge Messi in the Golden Boot race, but he failed to score against England and Morocco, ahead of the final.

However, any suggestion of his tournament fizzling out in Lusail were obliterated against La Abliceleste, bringing his tally up to eight for the tournament, the highest figure since Ronaldo Nazario in 2002.

Golden Boot tiebreakers

FIFA opted to introduce a set of tiebreakers rules — ahead of the 1994 World Cup — which referred to assists and minutes played, if two or more players were tied on the same goal tally, but Mbappe has won the 2022 award outright, with eight goals.

Assists would come before minutes played as the first and second respective tiebreaker criteria at a World Cup.

Most World Cup goals scored in a single tournament

• Just Fontaine - 13 goals - France at 1958 World Cup
• Sandor Kocsis - 11 goals - Hungary at 1954 World Cup 
• Gerd Muller - 10 goals - West Germany at 1970 World Cup
• Eusebio - 9 goals - Portugal at 1966 World Cup
• Guillermo Stabile - 8 goals - Argentina at 1930 World Cup
• Ademir - 9 goals - Brazil at 1950 World Cup
• Ronaldo Nazario 8 goals - Brazil at 2002 World Cup
• Kylian Mbappe 8 goals - France at 2022 World Cup

Who has scored most all-time World Cup goals in history?

Fontaine, Kocsis, Muller and Eusebio are all amongst the highest scorers in World Cup history, but it is the consistency across multiple World Cup of former Germany international Miroslav Klose that tops the list.

List of top scorers at World Cup