Muller, Villa, Sneijder: Who will Win Golden Boot of World Cup 2010?

World Cup Football 2010 will come to an end on Sunday (11 July) with the final match of the tournament being taken place between Spain and Netherlands at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg. Aside from the World Cup title, there are some individual titles up for grabs too, and Golden Boot is one of them.

Golden Boot is awarded to the top scorer of the tournament. At the moment, there are 4 players who have scored 5 goals each so far in the tournament. They are Thomas Muller from Germany, David Villa from Spain, Wesley Sneijder from Netherlands, and Diego Forlan from Uruguay.

Villa and Sneijder have the opportunity to increase their goal tally through the final match, but there is a possibility the tournament could end up with four top scorers. In that case, the number of assists they made during the tournament would come into effect to break the tie. If it is still not broken, then the player with the least amount of time stayed on the field would win the Golden Boot.

Considering the aforementioned FIFA rules to break the tie between the players, it seems there are now only 3 players in the race to win the Golden Boot of World Cup Football 2010. They are Thomas Muller, David Villa and Wesley Sneijder.

Thomas Muller (Germany)

Goal: 5, Assists: 3, Playing time: 473 minutes

Thomas Muller is now ahead of Villa and Sneijder in the race to secure the prestigious title with more assists and least amount of playing time. Muller has 3 assists to his credit and has played 473 minutes during his 6 appearances in the tournament. So, if Villa and Sneijder can not increase their number of goals or assists, then 20-year-old Muller would win the title.

Wesley Sneijder

Goal: 5, Assists: 2, Playing time: approximately 533 minutes

Wesley Sneijder currently comes second among the three players in terms of number of assists. Besides scoring 5 goals, he made 2 assists (until semi final match), one less than Muller but one more than Villa. However, when it comes to playing time, he comes at the bottom. So, Sneijder would now like to add to his goal tally by finding the net against Spain in the final. If Villa can not score, then Sneijder just needs to increase his number of assists to win the Golden Boot.

David Villa

Goal: 5, Assists: 1, Playing time: 529 minutes

David Villa has been instrumental in most of Spain’s victories so far in the tournament. However, to win the Golden Boot, he must increase his goal tally in the tournament final because he has least amount of assists (just 1 so far) among the three contenders at the moment. Though Villa played around 4 minutes less than Sneijder, it would not have any value if the Dutch scores in the final because then Villa has to increase his number of goals as well as number of assists to win the title.

Interestingly, all the three players made 6 appearances each so far and all of those were in the starting line up. Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan also has 5 goals to his credit, but he has made only 1 assist. As he has no more game left in hand to increase his goals or assists, Forlan is now out of the race.