How to win the Golden Boot
We called on some of the World Cup’s best goal-getters to share their secrets in our 23-point plan
“IF YOU ASK ME HOW I EXPLAIN MY EXPLOSION OF GOALS, I DON’T KNOW. MAYBE IT WAS JUST CONCENTRATION”
GO INTO THE TOURNAMENT ON A MASSIVE HIGH
Davor Suker had already made a name for himself on the international stage with three goals at Euro 96 – most notably chipping Peter Schmeichel in a 3-0 win over Denmark. A month before the 1998 World Cup, he won the Champions League with Real Madrid and took that feelgood factor into the tournament – scoring six goals to win the Golden Boot and help Croatia finish third.
“If I could repeat one year in my life, it would be 1998,” Suker tells FFT. “That was my best year – I couldn’t improve much on that year!
“I dreamt about things like that when I was young, playing with my classmates at school. Playing at the World Cup? Give me that chance and I will score the goals. That thought stayed in my head the whole time. I can remember something similar at the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship in Chile, when we were also successful with Yugoslavia and won the tournament.”
Suker scored six goals at that tournament, too.
HOPE POLITICAL SQUABBLING WORKS IN YOUR FAVOUR
Brazil centre-forward Leonidas scored a hat-trick in his opening game at the 1938 World Cup – a 6-5 triumph over Poland – but was struggling with injury ahead of the Selecao’s next match, the quarter-final against Czechoslovakia.
Vasco da Gama frontman Niginho was set to start in his place, only to be caught up in a dispute dating back to his time at Lazio, when he had been called up by the Italian army to fight in Ethiopia but headed home to Brazil instead. The Biancocelesti refused to release his registration so, warned of sanctions from FIFA if they played Niginho, Brazil stuck with the half-fit Leonidas. He scored in a 1-1 draw against the Czechs, then netted again in the replay. He later took his tally to seven with a pair in the third place play-off, finishing as the tournament’s top marksman.
MAKE SURE YOUR OLD MAN CASHES IN
Gary Lineker had only six international goals to his name before the 1986 World Cup, but that didn’t stop his father going down the bookies and putting money on him to win the Golden Boot. “My dad had put a bet on me to be top scorer at 14-1 – I looked at him like he was a madman,” Lineker once told FFT.
To be fair, it wasn’t so ridiculous. Lineker had smashed 38 goals in 52 games for Everton ahead of the finals, and not even breaking a wrist in England’s final warm-up match could halt his momentum. Sporting a cast on his left arm, he scored a hat-trick against Poland, two more against Paraguay and one in the quarter-final loss to Argentina, taking him to six. “I’m happy to be the only Englishman ever to have won the Golden Boot, though hopefully that’ll change soon,” said Lineker. “My dad won some cash, so he was pleased too.”
END YOUR COUNTRY’S WINLESS STREAK
Bulgaria had played in five World Cups before 1994 – 16 matches, zero victories. That was before Hristo Stoichkov came along. Against Greece, Stoichkov scored twice from the penalty spot and Bulgaria triumphed 4-0. “To be honest, I didn’t believe winning the Golden Boot would be possible going into the World Cup,” Stoichkov tells FFT. “Our main goal was to clinch Bulgaria’s first ever win at the World Cup. It was a target we were obsessed with.
“Against Greece I felt a great sense of responsibility because, in only the fifth minute, the referee awarded us a penalty. I took it with full confidence that I’d score, because I hadn’t missed a single penalty for the national team. Then I converted a second one and we knew we’d secure the victory we’d been waiting so long for. You never forget the taste of your first win.”
PUT YOUR NATION ON THE MAP
Croatia were playing their first World Cup in 1998. “We had war in Croatia and lots of football fans around the world didn’t know where Croatia was,” Suker tells FFT. “That World Cup helped people recognise the country and the fact there were good footballers from Croatia. It was also important for young kids in Croatia that the national team started playing, that we could see our flag and become proud. When you’re on the pitch, you represent your whole nation. It was our first World Cup so we were hungry to get results. No one can forget the spirit of Croatia. We just went out there and played.”
Croatia’s first World Cup finals match was against Jamaica in Lens: they won 3-1, with Suker scoring. Six days later, he netted again in a 1-0 victory over Japan. Croatia were through after just two games, and were firmly on the map.
GRAB YOUR CHANCE WITH BOTH HANDS
Toto Schillaci (right) may have finished the 1990 World Cup as top goalscorer, but he started the tournament on the bench without a single strike for Italy – having made his debut only four months earlier. Napoli’s Andrea Carnevale
DISTRACT THE PRESS WITH A BIZARRE HAIRCUT
started Italy’s opener against Austria, but with the game locked at 0-0, manager Azeglio Vicini summoned Schillaci from the bench. Within three minutes, the Juventus striker had headed the winner.
“I was the last player to be called into the national team for that World Cup,” Schillaci tells FFT. “To me, it was a very important chance I wanted to take full advantage of. I could express myself freely, without any responsibility, because in the opinion of the public and the media, the most important players were the others. No one was expecting anything from me. I wasn’t the first choice – Carnevale was our centre-forward. But when the score was still 0-0 in the first game, Vicini decided to put me on. The first goal came and I started to score regularly, so they couldn’t leave me on the bench.”
Soon Schillaci was in, and Carnevale was out. The Napoli forward would not play another minute at the tournament. In fact, he never represented Italy again – months later, having just joined Roma, his club career was derailed by a drugs ban.
GET AWAY WITH PUNCHING TWO PEOPLE
The leading scorers in 1962 had only four strikes each – the lowest tally ever required to win the Golden Boot. As well as Garrincha, the six to share the honour also included Leonel Sanchez, despite his role in the Battle of Santiago.
Sanchez had already scored two goals by the time Chile faced Italy, when he retaliated to a foul by punching defender Mario David. The Italian quickly sought revenge by kicking Sanchez in the head, before the Chilean forward broke Humberto Maschio’s nose with a left hook. Sanchez somehow escaped dismissal, and bagged two more goals in the host nation’s run to the semi-finals.
MAKE THE MOST OF HOME ADVANTAGE...
Schillaci’s six strikes in 1990 came on Italian soil. He fed off the fervour of the home crowd, his own passion abundantly clear from his crazed goal celebrations.
“The most important memory I have about that World Cup is the environment we played in, and the fact that we played in our own country,” he explains. “We could smell a big enthusiasm all around us. I was usually very shy, but the atmosphere at the matches got me involved very much.”
He netted against Czechoslovakia on his first start, before blasting home a thunderbolt against Uruguay in the last 16 and scoring the only goal to sink the Republic of Ireland in the quarter-finals.
“If you ask me now how I explain that explosion of goals, I can say that I don’t know,” he admits. “Maybe it was concentration, and the ability to take the best from every opportunity. Every goal is beautiful, and doing it in a competition that is as important as the World Cup is extraordinary and wonderful.”
...OR SILENCE THE ‘HOME’ CROWD
Bulgaria had followed up their first World Cup win at USA 94 with another in their next match, taking advantage of Diego Maradona’s mid-tournament suspension to stun Argentina 2-0 and reach the last 16. Stoichkov scored in that match to take his running tally to three, and next up was Mexico, which was effectively an away fixture.
“The game against Mexico was our most difficult,” the Dagger tells FFT. “We played in front of 60,000 or 70,000 Mexicans in the stands. Mexico had a really good team at that World Cup, but we were eager to win that game.”
Stoichkov lashed home a fine counter-attack goal to fire Bulgaria in front and silence the thousands of Mexicans at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford. El Tri eventually forced a penalty shootout, in which everyone’s favourite wig-wearing goalkeeper, Borislav Mihaylov, was the hero from 12 yards.
“I was supposed to take the last penalty, but Bontcho Guentchev, Daniel Borimirov and Yordan Letchkov scored theirs,” says Stoichkov. “I’m so grateful to all three of them for scoring, and saving me from having to take one at the end!”
Ronaldo was level with Miroslav Klose in the race for the 2002 Golden Boot, but he was worried. He hadn’t scored against England, and as the semi-final against Turkey approached, a thigh injury was bugging him – until a haircut took his mind off it. “It was sheer improvisation to hide an injury,” Ronaldo told FFT. “As I shaved my head, I was thinking of the pain I felt in my thigh. Journalists were speculating about my form – would I play against Turkey? When it was half-finished, I stopped. I found it funny and decided to show everyone. After I left my room you could hear the laughter from the ground floor. That’s when I decided to keep it. I knew the press would talk about my haircut, and then the question of whether I was injured or not would become irrelevant. I scored the decider against Turkey, and it was enough for me to keep the haircut for the final. It worked!” Ronaldo netted two more in the final to claim the Golden Boot with eight goals – a tally only Gerd Muller has topped in the last 50 years.