Bruno Fernandes, Mohammed Kudus and Cho Gue-sung each scored twice for their countries to all open their accounts for the 2022 World Cup.
Fernandes was awarded Portugal’s first goal against Uruguay despite Cristiano Ronaldo initially claiming it before he netted from the spot to wrap up a 2-0 win.
Kudus and Cho each grabbed braces as Ghana came out on top against South Korea in a 3-2 win.
There were also goals for the likes of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Vincent Aboubakar as Serbia and Cameroon played out a thrilling 3-3 draw.
Casemiro also got his first goal of the tournament to give Brazil a narrow 1-0 win over Switzerland.
Ecuador’s Enner Valencia and France superstar Kylian Mbappe still lead the way on three goals for the tournament.
Along with Fernandes, Kudus and Cho, a host of other players sit behind the leaders with two goals: Argentina’s Lionel Messi, Dutchman Cody Gakpo, Brazil’s Richarlison, Spain’s Ferran Torres and Morata, France’s Olivier Giroud, England’s Bukayo Saka, Croatia’s Kramaric and Iran’s Mehdi Taremi.
Many have scored one goal at Qatar 2022, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Wales’ Gareth Bale.
Most goals in World Cup 2022
| Player | Nation | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| Enner Valencia | Ecuador | 3 |
| Kylian Mbappe | France | 3 |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 2 |
| Olivier Giroud | France | 2 |
| Richarlison | Brazil | 2 |
| Ferran Torres | Spain | 2 |
| Bukayo Saka | England | 2 |
| Cody Gakpo | Netherlands | 2 |
| Mehdi Taremi | Iran | 2 |
| Andrej Kramaric | Croatia | 2 |
| Mohammed Kudus | Ghana | 2 |
| Cho Gue-sung | South Korea | 2 |
| Alvaro Morata | Spain | 2 |
| Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 1 |
| Piotr Zielinski | Poland | 1 |
| Mitchell Duke | Australia | 1 |
| Dani Olmo | Spain | 1 |
| Marco Asensio | Spain | 1 |
| Gavi | Spain | 1 |
| Carlos Soler | Spain | 1 |
| Enzo Fernandez | Argentina | 1 |
| Michy Batshuayi | Belgium | 1 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 1 |
| Rafael Leao | Portugal | 1 |
| Casemiro | Brazil | 1 |
| Joao Felix | Portugal | 1 |
| Andre Ayew | Ghana | 1 |
| Osman Bukari | Ghana | 1 |
| Breel Embolo | Switzerland | 1 |
| Adrien Rabiot | France | 1 |
| Craig Goodwin | Australia | 1 |
| Gareth Bale | Wales | 1 |
| Timothy Weah | USA | 1 |
| Davy Klaassen | Netherlands | 1 |
| Jude Bellingham | England | 1 |
| Raheem Sterling | England | 1 |
| Jack Grealish | England | 1 |
| Marcus Rashford | England | 1 |
| Saleh Al-Shehri | Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Salem Al Dawsari | Saudi Arabia | 1 |
| Ilkay Gundogan | Germany | 1 |
| Ritsu Doan | Japan | 1 |
| Rouzbeh Cheshmi | Iran | 1 |
| Ramin Rezaeian | Iran | 1 |
| Boulaye Dia | Senegal | 1 |
| Famara Diedhou | Senegal | 1 |
| Mohamed Salisu | Ghana | 1 |
| Sergej Milinkovic-Savic | Serbia | 1 |
| Aleksandar Mitrovic | Serbia | 1 |
| Strahinja Pavlovic | Serbia | 1 |
| Vincent Aboubakar | Cameroon | 1 |
| Eric Maxim Chupo-Moting | Cameroon | 1 |
| Jean-Charles Castelletto | Cameroon | 1 |
| Bamba Dieng | Senegal | 1 |
| Mohammed Muntari | Qatar | 1 |
| Takuma Asano | Japan | 1 |
| Romain Saiss | Morocco | 1 |
| Niclas Fullkrug | Germany | 1 |
| Zakaria Aboukhlal | Morocco | 1 |
| Lovro Majer | Croatia | 1 |
| Marko Livaja | Croatia | 1 |
| Alphonso Davies | Canada | 1 |
| Keysher Fuller | Costa Rica | 1 |
The 2022 World Cup Golden Boot is set to be fiercely contested, with a host of top-class players in the running to finish top scorer.
England’s Harry Kane went into the World Cup as favourite to win the Golden Boot.
The Spurs striker finished top scorer at Russia 2018, finding the back of the net six times as England reached the semi-finals. He has been favoured this time around, too, with the Three Lions drawn in a modest group along with Iran, Wales and United States.
France won the 2018 World Cup, partly thanks to the brilliance of Kylian Mbappe. The PSG superstar is second favourite to become top-scorer in Qatar.
Karim Benzema was third favourite to win the Golden Boot but was ruled out of the tournament with injury just days before it got underway.
Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are both playing in their fifth World Cups, and will be looking to crown their legendary careers by not only winning the tournament but by also claiming the Golden Boot.
Other players to keep an eye on are Brazil’s Neymar, Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku, Holland’s Memphis Depay, Argentina’s Lautaro Martinez and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski.
Or could there be a surprise winner? In the past, we have seen a number of unheralded stars suddenly break out to finish top scorer in the World Cup. Good examples of this are Salvatore Schillaci for Italy in 1990, Oleg Salenko in 1994 (shared with Hristo Stoichkov), Thomas Muller in 2010 and even James Rodriguez in 2014.
This could open the door for a lesser-known player or even someone from a smaller nation who perhaps are not expected to win the World Cup.
World Cup Golden Boot Winners
| Tournament | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1930 | Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) | 8 |
| 1934 | Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia) | 5 |
| 1938 | Leonidas (Brazil) | 7 |
| 1950 | Ademir (Brazil) | 8 |
| 1954 | Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) | 11 |
| 1958 | Just Fontaine (France) | 13 |
| 1962 | Six players* | 4 |
| 1966 | Eusebio (Portugal) | 9 |
| 1970 | Gerd Muller (West Germany) | 10 |
| 1974 | Grzegorz Lato (Poland) | 7 |
| 1978 | Mario Kempes (Argentina) | 6 |
| 1982 | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | 6 |
| 1986 | Gary Lineker (England) | 6 |
| 1990 | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | 6 |
| 1994 | Oleg Salenko (Russia) & Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) | 6 |
| 1998 | Davor Suker (Croatia) | 6 |
| 2002 | Ronaldo (Brazil) | 8 |
| 2006 | Miroslav Klose (Germany) | 5 |
| 2010 | Thomas Muller (Germany) | 5 |
| 2014 | James Rodriguez (Colombia) | 6 |
| 2018 | Harry Kane (England) | 6 |
*The six players who all top-scored with four goals in 1962 were Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (USSR), Vava and Garrincha (Brazil), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia) and Leonel Sanchez (Chile).
Germany legend Miroslav Klose is the World Cup all-time top scorer with 16 goals.
He is followed by Brazil legend Ronaldo with 15 goals, Gerd Muller with 14, Just Fontaine with 13 and Pele with 12.
That record is unlikely to be challenged in this World Cup.
