Another year and another award for Paris Saint-Germain’s Kylian Mbappe. Ligue 1 recognized the World Cup winner as the Golden Boot winner for the shortened 2019/20 season after notching 18 for the champions. Although a second straight for Mbappe, this year’s prize comes with some controversy after a tie with Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder.
Kylian Mbappe Wins Ligue 1 Golden Boot
Mbappe Deserving and Ben Yedder Robbed
L’Equipe first reported the French Football League’s (LFP) decision on Thursday to award the Golden Boot to the PSG attacker, with ESPN via The AP corroborating it. According to the LFP, Mbappe won the Golden Boot because he scored more goals, all of them in fact, from open play. Ben Yedder, on the other hand, scored three from the penalty spot, effectively punishing him.
Mbappe also beat out his compatriot in goals per game after suffering a few different injuries limiting him to only 20 league games, six less than Ben Yedder. Had the remainder of Ligue 1’s season not been cancelled, odds are Mbappe would’ve scored more over the stretch run of the season as well, winning it outright over Ben Yedder.
In a very subtle way, Ligue 1 also confirmed Mbappe’s win on their website by ranking him first in the scoring chart, with Ben Yedder second instead of tied for first.
Usually, a tie sees the Golden Boot shared, like in the Premier League last season where Arsenal’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and two Liverpool forwards, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane, all shared the award.
In this instance, it seems the French League has robbed Ben Yedder of worthy recognition.
Golden Boot Consistency
However, this isn’t the first time the France’s top tier had a tie atop the scoring charts. Nor is it the first time they’ve used open play goals as the tiebreaker, as Goal explains.
In the 2011/12 season, Montpellier’s French striker Olivier Giroud finished tied with PSG’s Brazilian attacker Nene on 21 goals. However, Giroud won the Golden Boot after scoring 19 of his 21 from open play.
Nene only scored nine from open play. And your eyebrows should’ve shot up already because that means he hit 12 from the penalty spot in one season. That’s an insane amount of converted spot-kicks. And even crazier, it could’ve been more as he also missed one during the campaign.
It may seem unfair to Ben Yedder, not awarding him a share of the Golden Boot. And it might appear extra egregious because the league season did not play a full 38 matchday schedule. But the French league is showing consistency here, if that matters at all. It just happens to favour Mbappe and punish Ben Yedder.
Mbappe has gone on an unprecedented rise since he broke through with Monaco in 2016/17. He’s won Ligue 1 each of the past four years, a World Cup in 2018 where he became only the second teenager to score in the final, the other being Pele. And Mbappe has now won a second straight Golden Boot, beating out teammate and prolific scorer Neymar each time.
What will Mbappe win next? Who knows. But it’s practically guaranteed he’ll win plenty more individual and team honours.
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