New Euro 2024 Golden Boot rules explained – and what it means for England stars

Harry Kane’s chances of winning the Euro 2024 Golden Boot have just been given a massive boost thanks to a UEFA rule change.

The England captain will be first and foremost hoping to lead his country to glory by beating Spain in Sunday’s final in Berlin.

But the striker is also in contention to win the Golden Boot, awarded to the top goalscorer at the tournament, being one of six players currently leading the race on three goals.

Spain star Dani Olmo is also in that group and just like Kane he’ll be aiming to add to his tally in the final, but in a surprise twist both could be walking away with the prize thanks to a change in the rules that has just emerged…

What are the new Golden Boot Rules?

The player who scores the most goals wins the Golden Boot, simple.

But in past tournaments, there have been tiebreakers in the case that multiple players finish on the same tally, the first of which is the number of assists the players have.

For example, at Euro 2020 Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick both scored five goals, but the Portugal legend claimed the award having also recorded one assist to the Czech’s none.

If assists cannot split players, it goes to whoever achieved their tally in fewer minutes, as was the case at Euro 2012 when Fernando Torres and Mario Gomez both finished on three goals and one assist.

Spain’s Torres played just 189 minutes at the tournament compared to Germany star Gomez’s 282 minutes, thus meaning Torres emerged victorious.

It was thought that these rules would apply again at Euro 2024, however UEFA announced on Friday that there will be no tiebreakers at all:

‘If there is a tie [in the number of goals scored], the UEFA Football Division has confirmed the Alipay+-backed award will be shared.’

Waht are the Euro 2024 Golden Boot standings?

As mentioned, with just the final to go, six players are tied on three goals.

Kane and Olmo are the only two left in the tournament, meaning that if one scores they’ll win the prize outright but if both find the back of the net – the same number of times – they’ll split it.

Should both fail to score, they’ll share it with Cody Gakpo (the Netherlands), Georges Mikautadze (Georgia), Jamal Musiala (Germany) and Ivan Schranz (Slovakia).

Had the tiebreaker rules been in place, Olmo would have been very well placed to win the award for himself by virtue of having two assists to Kane’s none.

But there is even a scenario where eight players could be sharing the Golden Boot, as Jude Bellingham and Fabian Ruiz are also still very much in contention with two goals each. Another strike in the final would put them level with the leading pack.

It is also not inconceivable that any of England and Spain’s nine other goalscorers, including Bukayo Saka and Ollie Watkins, could catch up, though they would need to bag a brace in perhaps the biggest game of the careers.