World Cup 2022: top scorers in race for the Golden Boot in Qatar

Some of the greatest goalscorers ever are on show in the FIFA competition hoping to fire their country to the ultimate prize.

As we wake up on Friday 25 November we can reflect on what has been a rather enjoyable/surprising/depressing/inspiring/mediocre (*delete as appropriate) first round of group games in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The stand-out team performances from potential tournament winners have come from the likes of Spain (7-0 over Costa Rica), France (4-1 over Switzerland), and Brazil (2-0 over Ghana), while England’s 6-2 Iran bashing can’t be ignored. Incredible underdogs victories have been witnessed too, with the most impressive that of Saudi Arabia and Japan (both winning 2-1 against Argentina and Germany respectively.

Who are the 2022 World Cup top scorers?

A balanced team is always what a manager strives to have across the competition but, as we all know, it’s usually the strikers who get most of the attention, and are often crucial to their side’s success. And even if their team doesn’t go on to lift the famous trophy in Qatar, the individual Golden Boot award can still be theirs.

It’s clearly still early, but here’s how the top scorer chart looks after the first round of group games, with six players, across six nations, having notched a brace in their opening fixture.

Which leagues have scored most goals in Qatar?

OK, so leagues don’t actually score the goals but we were interested to check out where the players doing the net bulging are normally plying their professional trade. As you can see below, it’s the English Premier League powerhouse leading the way (for the purposes of this we continue to class Cristiano Ronaldo as part of that), with the four other big European leagues following in behind.

It is, though, nice to see some of the smaller international leagues making their mark, and Wales’ Gareth Bale has the MLS represented, after slotting home his penalty against, ironically, the USA.