Mbappe And Messi May Not Win The World Cup Scorer Race. They Have A Very Strong Competitor
Messi
But, most likely, the best sniper of the tournament will be a player from the “league of farmers”.
In six days and four matches, the 2022 World Cup will end. Not only the names of the champions but also the name of the top scorer of the tournament will be inscribed in history in golden letters. It is possible that he will be from the team that took the trophy, but such coincidences do not happen often.
Nevertheless, the main candidates for the prize of the best scorer are still in business. Leading the race is Kylian Mbappe . He scored five goals, all from the game – scored doubles against Denmark in the group and Poland in the 1/8 finals, and also hit the gates of Australia in the 1st round match. England closed Mbappe in the quarter-finals, effectively leaving Kylian without chances, however, and this did not save them.
One of Mbappe’s two main competitors is teammate Olivier Giroud. The center forward scored four goals, and all his goals were also from the field. Giroud started with a double from Australia, and in the playoffs, both the Poles and the British got from him. Over the course of the tournament, Olivier became the top scorer in the history of the French national team, and with such accuracy in knockout games, he can also take the 2022 World Cup top scorer award.
In terms of performance, Giroud is a very different player in Qatar than he was in Russia four years ago, where he was also the main striker of the world champions. Olivier finished the 2018 World Cup with a shameful individual statistic – 0 goals. Here, as if Karim Benzema moved into him. True, in the semi-finals, Giroud and Mbappe must solve the problem that no one has yet completed: to score against the Moroccan national team. The only goal conceded by the Moroccans was an own goal.
Four goals in the World Cup and Lionel Messi. However, the Argentine, unlike the French, scored only twice from the game – in matches with Mexico and Australia in the 1/8 finals. But in Saudi Arabia in the group stage and the Netherlands in the quarterfinals, Leo scored from the penalty spot. Most likely, Messi, Giroud, and Mbappe will not catch up. The closest pursuers, who continue to play at the World Cup, scored two goals each. They are Argentine Julian Alvarez, Croatian Andrej Kramarich, and Moroccan Youssef En-Nesiri.
It takes Mbappe just 77 minutes to score one goal. Giroud has almost the same statistics – 79 minutes. Messi needs 120 minutes to hit the goal of others. The most effective scorer to score more than one goal at the 2022 World Cup was Wout Weghorst (30 minutes per goal). Thanks to just a meeting with the Argentines, where the Dutchman scored a double.
A group of players also have good numbers – German Niklas Füllkrug (33 minutes), Portuguese Rafael Leau (41), Englishman Marcus Rashford (45), Portuguese Gonçalo Ramos (50), German Kai Havertz (51), Uruguayan Hiorhjan de Arrascaeta (54) , Spaniard Alvaro Morata (61) and Cameroonian Vincent Abubakar (70).
Curiously, Messi is the leader in terms of the number of shots at the World Cup: Leo hit a goal 25 times. Mbappe has 21 shots, while Giroud and Neymar have 13 each. Messi also hits the most on target with 13. Mbappe has 10 hits, Neymar has eight. Fat had six shots on target for four goals. In terms of the number of scoring chances, Messi and Mbappe are noticeably ahead of the rest (17 each). Giroud had 12 chances, and the unlucky Lautaro Martinez also entered the top 4 with 10 points.
Mbappe has the highest chance of surpassing the goalscorers of the last World Cup. Kane became the top scorer of the 2018 World Cup, scoring only one more ball – six goals. Prior to that, James Rodriguez put six goals at the 2014 World Cup, Miroslav Klose at the 2006 World Cup, and a whole group of players at the 2010 World Cup (Thomas Muller, David Villa, Wesley Snyder, and Diego Forlan) was limited to five accurate shots.
Frenchman Just Fontaine’s record of 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup is likely to stand for a very long time. It is unlikely that Mbappe will even get to the result of the Brazilian Ronaldo at the 2002 World Cup, who scored eight goals in Japan and Korea.
Meanwhile, the top scorer of the World Cup only three times became the player of the team that took the trophy. This is Ronaldo at the 2002 World Cup, Argentinean Mario Kempes at the 1978 World Cup and Spaniard Paolo Rossi at the 1982 World Cup. In two more cases, world champions shared first place with players from other teams: the Brazilians Garrincha and Vava at the 1962 World Cup, as well as Villa at the 2010 World Cup.
Some scornfully refer to the French Championship, where Mbappe and Messi play for PSG, the “league of farmers.” But the striker associated with her will almost certainly be the top scorer of the World Cup. After all, even Milan striker Giroud has matured as a player in Ligue 1.
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