Argentina prepared to face defending champions France in the World Cup final on Sunday with Lionel Messi seeking to crown his record-breaking career by winning football's biggest prize for the first time on his farewell to the tournament. After 63 matches and 166 goals, the month-long footballing showpiece reaches its climax at Doha's 89,000-capacity Lusail Stadium on Sunday. Messi, playing in his fifth and final World Cup, is hoping to lead Argentina to a first title since the Diego Maradona-inspired victory in Mexico City in 1986.
In his way stand the prolific Kylian Mbappe and a France team aiming to become the first to win back-to-back World Cups since Pele's Brazil in 1958 and 1962. Both the players have scored five goals each and are the front-runners to win the 'Golden Boot', awarded to the highest goalscorers. The second highest scorer at wins the Silver Boot while the third-highest scorer wins the Bronze Boot.
The top four goal scorers of FIFA World Cup 2022 will play in the final. France's Olivier Giroud and Argentina's Julian Alvarez have scored four goals each. They all are in the race to win the award.
Starting from the 1994 edition, FIFA introduced a tie-breaker system if two players were tied on the number of goals. According to it, if two or more players ended with the same number of goals, the player who has has scored the most in the open play and not from penalties wins the Golden Boot. If players are still tied, the one with more assists wins the award.
So far, Messi has scored three of his goals from the spot while Mbappe has scored none.