Golden Boot still up for grabs

SINGAPORE — With just two of the 64 matches left to go, one key question at this World Cup remains unanswered: Who will be the tournament’s top scorer and win the coveted Golden Boot?

Four years ago, it finished in a four-way tie between Germany’s Thomas Muller, Spaniard David Villa, Dutchman Wesley Sneijder and Uruguay’s Diego Forlan. But the German won it thanks to his three assists, compared with one for the rest.

Fast forward to 2014 and it is another tightly-run race, with an eliminated player leading the pack: Colombian ace James Rodriguez’s astonishing scoring burst of a goal in every game he played and the memorable double against Uruguay have got him out front with six goals and two assists.

But his position is heavily threatened by Muller, who, with five goals and three assists to his name, needs just one goal to win the title and thus become the first ever player to win back-to-back Golden Boots, and make it a German hat-trick in three consecutive finals, after Miroslav Klose won the award eight years ago.

Lionel Messi is, unsurprisingly, lurking not far from the top of the pile, with four goals and a single assist. That total would mean he needs, at worst, a couple of goals in the final and a shedload of assists to overhaul Rodriguez or Muller.

The Golden Boot is something taken extremely seriously by forwards throughout the world game and the list of previous winners reads like a who’s who of footballing history: Gerd Muller, Eusebio, Paolo Rossi, Gary Lineker, Ronaldo, Klose and the record holder, France’s Juste Fontaine, who bagged 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden.

The world will not know until the early hours of Monday (Singapore time) who is the sharpest shooter of Brazil 2014, but you can have your say now in our latest poll.

Log on to todayonline.com/worldcup and vote for who you think will be the Golden Boot winner.

TOP FIVE SCORERS AT BRAZIL 2014

Goals Assists

1. James Rodriguez (Colombia) 6 2

2. Thomas Muller (Germany) 5 3

3. Lionel Messi (Argentina) 4 1

3. Neymar (Brazil) 4 1

5. Karim Benzema (France) 3 4