Was Harry Kane the most unimpressive golden boot ever?

Harry Kane’s Golden Boot accolade hasn’t agreed with everyone, despite the striker scoring the most goals at this year’s World Cup.

The English frontman put six goals in the back of the net during the tournament, but it was the manner of his scoring feats that left some fans questioning whether the 24-year-old deserved the trophy.

Ever since 1982, the World Cup Golden Boot has gone to the top goalscorer at the tournament – and it has never mattered how the goals are scored, when, or against whom.

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Kane’s goal tally was enough to beat off rivals Kylian Mbappe, Antoine Griezmann, Cristiano Ronaldo, Denis Cheryshev and Romelu Lukaku, who all scored four apiece.

The striker notched just one goal from open play over 573 minutes, and that one goal was an inadvertent deflection off his heel.

“In other words, Kane didn’t score with a single purposeful shot during the run of play, despite logging more minutes than all but one other striker at the tournament, and over 100 more minutes than all but two strikers,” according to Yahoo Sports reporter Henry Bushnell.

“His first two goals were both vital and opportunistic. Each took talent but also a significant slice of luck.

His opener was England’s opener against Tunisia, a rebound from a John Stones header.”

He won the game against Tunisia by drifting to the back post and nodding home a second ball.

Everything else, however, came either against Panama or from the penalty spot – or both.

Kane’s two penalties against Panama put England up 2-0 and later 5-0, and then he bagged another penalty against Colombia.

“There was nothing else in the knockouts – not against Los Cafeteros, not in a 2-0 victory over Sweden, not in a 2-1 semifinal loss to Croatia, and not even in the third-place game against Belgium,” wrote Bushnell.

“In fact, Kane missed one massive chance in that Croatia game that would have gone a long way toward seeing England through to its first World Cup final in 52 years.

“There’s no point in suggesting Kane doesn’t deserve the Golden Boot. He does. He pounced on the two Tunisia chances. He converted his penalties. That’s what goalscorers do.

“But his claiming of the award is a good reminder that pure goalscoring tallies – especially ones that include penalties, which any professional player would convert more often than not – are silly ways to judge forwards. Plenty who score two or three times fewer goals had stronger individual campaigns, especially considering they put up their numbers against stiffer competition.”

with Yahoo Sports.