New Zealand's Elijah Just has moved alongside Germany's Kai Havertz, Sweden's Yasin Ayari and USA's Folarin Balogun at the front of the pack in the race for the adidas Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer at .
Balogun, the 25-year-old Monaco player, struck twice in the first half of the co-hosts' in their opening Group D encounter at Los Angeles Stadium, becoming the first player to score multiple goals for the Stars and Stripes in a World Cup match since 1930.
Arsenal ace Havertz then bagged a brace for Germany in their resounding in the Group E opener in Houston on 14 June, with Ayari scoring a superb brace in later the same day. Just then joined them the following day by scoring an equally brilliant double as in Los Angeles.
With several of the 48 teams involved in the tournament still to take to the field, there is sure to be significant further movement in the coming days and weeks.
Folarin Balogun (USA) – zero assists, 77 minutes played Yasin Ayari (Sweden) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Kai Havertz (Germany) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Elijah Just (New Zealand) - zero assists, 101 minutes played
Deniz Undav (Germany) - two assists, 31 minutes played Alexander Isak (Sweden) - two assists, 94 minutes played Nathaniel Brown (Germany) - one assist, 77 minutes played Hwang Inbeom (Korea Republic) – one assist, 87 minutes played Viktor Gyokeres (Sweden) - one assist, 100 minutes played Ramin Rezaeian (IR Iran) - one assist, 101 minutes played Mikel Svanberg (Sweden) - zero assists, 13 minutes played Giovanni Reyna (USA) - zero assists, 17 minutes played Cyle Larin (Canada) – zero assists, 20 minutes played Oh Hyeongyu (Korea Republic) – zero assists, 28 minutes played Amad Diallo (Côte d'Ivoire) - zero assists, 43 minutes played Mauricio (Paraguay) – zero assists, 53 minutes played Nestory Irankunda (Australia) - zero assists, 64 minutes played Jovo Lukic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – zero assists, 65 minutes played Jamal Musiala (Germany) - zero assists, 69 minutes played Crysencio Summerville (Netherlands) - zero assists, 72 minutes played
Emam Ashour (Egypt) - zero assists, 74 minutes Felix Nmecha (Germany) - zero assists, 77 minutes played Raul Jimenez (Mexico) – zero assists, 79 minutes played Julian Quinones (Mexico) – zero assists, 82 minutes played Maxi Araujo (Uruguay) - zero assists, 84 minutes John McGinn (Scotland) - zero assists, 86 minutes played Ismael Saibari (Morocco) - zero assists, 92 minutes played Daichi Kamada (Japan) - zero assists, 99 minutes played Keito Nakamura (Japan) - zero assists, 99 minutes played Virgil van Dijk (Netherlands) - zero assists, 99 minutes played
Ladislav Krejci (Czechia) – zero assists, 100 minutes played Connor Metcalfe (Australia) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Omar Rekik (Tunisia) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Mohammad Mohebbi (IR Iran) - zero assists, 101 minutes played Abdulelah Al-Amri (Saudi Arabia) - zero assists, 102 minutes played Livano Comenencia (Curaçao) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Nico Schlotterbeck (Germany) - zero assists, 100 minutes played Breel Embolo (Switzerland) - zero assists, 103 minutes played Vinicius Jr (Brazil) - zero assists, 104 minutes played Last updated 23:30 EST Sunday 14 June
The adidas 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 the FIFA 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.
Sources: FIFA Official
