Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo leads Golden Boot race after first round of FIFA World Cup group matches

Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo leads the coveted Golden Boot race in the FIFA World Cup 2018 after the end of the first round of group matches. Ronaldo had found the net thrice, the only hat-trick of the World Cup in Russia till now (June 19), in his team's opener against Spain which ended in a 3-3 draw.

Ronaldo is followed by Russia's Denis Cheryshev, Spain's Diego Costa, England's Harry Kane and Belgium's Romelu Lukaku all of whom have scored two goals.

The Golden Boot is awarded to the top goalscorer at every FIFA World Cup. If two or more players end up as the joint top scorer in the FIFA World Cup, then the Golden Boot is awarded to the one who has maximum assists among the top scorers. If the joint top scorers are still tied with the same number of assists, the one who played the least minutes gets the Golden Boot.

Below is the list of all the Golden Boot winners of the previous FIFA World Cups:

2014: James Rodríguez (Colombia) 6 Goals
2010: Thomas Muller (Germany) 5 Goals
2006: Miroslav Klose (Germany) 5 Goals
2002: Ronaldo (Brazil) 8 Goals
1998: Davor Suker (Croatia) 6 Goals
1994: Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria), Oleg Salenko (Russia) 6 Goals Each
1990: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) 6 Goals
1986: Gary Lineker (England) 6 Goals
1982: Paolo Rossi (Italy) 6 Goals
1978: Mario Kempes (Argentina) 6 Goals
1974: Grzegorz Lato (Poland) 7 Goals
1970: Gerd Muller (Germany) 10 Goals
1966: Eusebio (Portugal) 9 Goals
1962: Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Drazen Jerkovic (Yugoslavia), Leonel Sanchez (Chile), Vava (Brazil), Garrincha (Brazil) 4 Goals Each
1958: Just Fontaine (France) 13 Goals
1954: Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) 11 Goals
1950: Ademir (Brazil) 9 Goals
1938: Leonidas (Brazil) 8 Goals
1934: Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia), Edmund Conen (Germany), Angelo Schiavio (Italy) 4 Goals Each
1930: Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) 8 Goals

Just Fontaine of France holds the record for scoring the maximum number of goals in a single World Cup when he found the net 13 times in the 1958 edition of the tournament held in Sweden. Hungary's Sandor Kocsis with 11 goals in the 1954 World Cup in Switzerland and Germany's (then West Germany) Gerd Muller with 10 in the 1970 edition in Mexico are at the second and third spot respectively in the list of all-time leading scorers in a single FIFA World Cup.