SOPHIA Smith of the United States leads the way in the Women’s World Cup Golden Boot tally after hitting two goals in USA’s victory over Vietnam on Saturday. Lindsey Horan was also on target in that game, wrapping up the Americans’ 3-0 success.

Smith is joined on two goals by Japan’s Hinata Miyazawa, who bagged a brace in their 5-0 romp against Zambia to open their Group C campaign in style.

The Golden Boot will be awarded to the player who scores the most goals in the final competition.

If two or more players score the same number of goals, the number of assists (as determined by the members of FIFA’s technical study group) shall be decisive.

If two or more players are still equal after taking into account the number of assists, the total minutes played in the tournament will be taken into account, with the player playing fewer minutes ranked first.

A Silver Boot and a Bronze Boot will also be awarded for the second and third-highest goalscorers, respectively.

Current leaders Smith Hinata with two goals are followed by the rest of the tournament’s goal scorers, including Australia’s own captain Steph Catley and: Mina Tanaka – Japan, Jun Endo – Japan, Amalie Vangsgaard – Denmark, Riko Ueki – Japan, Esther Gonzalez – Spain, Ramona Bachmann – Switzerland, Hannah Wilkinson – New Zealand, Seraina Piubel – Switzerland, Aitana Bonmati – Spain, Georgia Stanway – England and Lindsey Horan – USA.

Previous winners are:
1991: Michelle Akers – USA (10 goals);
1995: Ann-Kristin Aarones – Norway (6 goals);
1999: Sissi – Brazil (7 goals), Sun Wen – China (7 goals);
2003: Birgit Prinz – Germany (7 goals);
2007: Marta – Brazil (7 goals);
2011: Homare Sawa – Japan (5 goals);
2015: Celia Sasic – Germany (6 goals), Carli Lloyd – USA (6 goals) and;
2019: Megan Rapinoe – USA (6 goals).

American Michelle Akers holds the record for the most goals: 10 in 1991 and Homare Sawa’s tally of five is the lowest needed to claim the honour.

There has twice been joint winners of the award (1999, 2015)

The leading scorer has not come from the World Cup winners on two occasions (1999, 2007).