The 21st edition of the FIFA World Cup is set to begin on June 14 where the members of Fédération Internationale de Football Association (French for International Federation of Association Football) will compete for the prestigious trophy.
In 1904, FIFA was founded to oversee international competition among the national associations of Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland. The headquarters of FIFA are in Zürich, its membership now comprises 211 national associations.
Member countries must each also be members of one of the six regional confederations into which the world is divided: Africa, Asia, Europe, North & Central America and the Caribbean, Oceania, and South America.
In 2018, 31 teams along with the host country (Russia) will fight for the trophy on the Soviet land. Teams like Brazil, Germany (defending champions), France and Spain are the favourites to lift the trophy. As for Belgium,they are touted to be the dark horse.
Golden Boot (or a Golden Shoe, as it was previously called) is awarded to the player with most number of goals to his name at the end of the World cup. Colombia’s James Rodriguez was the winner of this award in 2014, while Germany’s Thomas Muller was the winner in 2010.
Here is a look at 5 players who can win golden boot in FIFA World Cup 2018:
- Thomas Muller:
Being the winner of the Golden boot in 2010, he is the leading candidate for this year’s Golden Boot award. Muller had a decent with Bayern where he scored 16 goals and 16 assists. Not renowned for silky technique, mazy dribbles round opposing defenders or outrageous tricks and flicks, is based on the determination, effort and tireless running, attributes that rapidly won him a special place in the hearts of Bayern Munich fans.
He was the top-scorer in World Cup qualifiers 2018 with 5 goals to his names which helped Germany to remain unbeaten in their group.
- Neymar:
In the last edition of FIFA World Cup, the fans witness a glimpse of what Neymar could do and this year, he can set the stage on fire. By scoring 6 goals in the world cup qualifiers, he led Brazil to qualify for World cup as a leader in the table.
Currently playing for PSG, he is one hot shot player with his skills and pace on the field. Despite not playing half of the season, he managed to score 27 goals for the club and would be hoping to carry the performance in the World Cup.
- Lionel Messi:
This season, Messi is in a great form scoring 45 goals in 54 appearances. Despite Argentina’s history of choking under pressure, Messi has never disappointed his fans.
In world cup qualifiers he scored 7 goals in 10 games, scoring a hat-trick against Ecuador in first world cup qualifying game and also Argentina won 75 per cent of their points when he was on the field.
- Cristiano Ronaldo:
Despite his not-so-impressive performance in the national jersey, the Portuguese will enter the tournament as leading contender for Golden Boot.
He has only scored 3 goals in 3 World Cups so far but the performance in the last edition of Euro Cup should come as a warning for opponents.
- Antoine Griezmann:
France’s most important player — Antoine Griezmann will play a significant role in France’s campaign this year. Griezmann has been in superb form scoring 29 goals this season.
He was also the top scorer in Euro 2016 with 6 goals. France topped the group during qualifiers with Griezmann being the top scorer with 4 goals.
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