Here’s what went down when four players were tied for the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup.
Even though he scored the same number of goals as three other players, Germany’s Thomas Muller won the Golden Boot at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – all thanks to FIFA’s tiebreaker rules.
The Golden Boot, first given out in 1982, goes to the top scorer in each World Cup. Italy’s Paulo Rossi was the first winner, scoring six goals in seven games. The latest winner was France’s Kylian Mbappe, who scored eight goals in 2022, even though France lost out to Argentina.
That year, Lionel Messi almost took the award but was edged out by Mbappe, despite being the first player since 1986 to score in every round starting from the last 16.
Now, four years later, Messi is ahead of Mbappe again in the Golden Boot race, with four assists to Mbappe’s three – but both players have eight goals, so things could change soon. Mbappe will try to pull ahead on Saturday when France plays England for third place, while Messi will aim to score in Sunday’s final against Spain.
If players score the same number of goals, assists (decided by FIFA’s Technical Study Group) are the tiebreaker. This happened in 2010 when Muller, David Villa, Wesley Sneijder, and Diego Forlan all scored five goals, but Muller won because he had three assists, more than the others.
If players are still tied after counting assists, the player with fewer minutes played in the tournament gets the prize.