Leading up to the tournament, there was a great deal of focus on whether it would be Ronaldo or Messi taking home the Golden Boot. The two football stars have been vying for the top individual accolades for over a decade and the goal scoring chart for World Cup 2018 was expected to be a closely fought contest between the duo again.

Ronaldo started his World Cup campaign with an incredible hat-trick against a very good Spain team, a feat that even he will be impressed with. On the other hand, Messi had a penalty saved in his first game against Iceland and failed to get a goal to his name. Yesterday, Ronaldo increased his tally to four with a well-taken goal against Morocco. So he is heading up the World Cup leading scorers with the exception of one stand-out goal scorer.

The World Cup 2018 leading goal scorer is own goal

Leading the pack is the own goal. There have been more own goals scored in this tournament than any individual has been able match. After just seven games, there have been five own goals scored, which is close to beating the record for World Cup total own goals for the whole tournament. France 1998 saw six own goals throughout the entire tournament and it looks like this World Cup will see more than that.

Own goals have been scored by the opposing teams for Iran, France, Croatia, Senegal and Russia in what has been a generally high scoring tournament so far. Ronaldo will of course be keen to set the record straight and make sure that ‘OG’ does not outdo him in the goal scoring charts. Behind him, Russia’s Denis Chershev and Spain’s Diego Costa are on three goals, whilst Lukaku, Dzyuba and Kane have scored two goals. It is looking like it will be a very exciting battle for the Golden Boot and there is no doubting that we will see a few twists and turns before the tournament finishes on 15 July.