UEFA makes Euro 2024 something unprecedented in history

In the Euro 2024 final, Spain won 2-1 against England. Notably, the two faces competing for the title of top scorer of the tournament, Harry Kane and Dani Olmo, did not score.

Thus, Euro 2024 witnessed 6 players scoring 3 goals: Harry Kane (England), Dani Olmo (Spain), Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Georges Mikautadze (Georgia), Jamal Musiala (Germany) and Ivan Schranz (Slovakia).

Unlike previous years, UEFA did not use any additional criteria to determine the Golden Boot. That made Euro 2024 witness an unprecedented event in history when up to 6 players shared this title.

Previously, in the case of two players having the same number of goals, the first criterion considered in the Golden Boot award was the number of assists. For example, at Euro 2020, two players C. Ronaldo and Patrick Schick both had 5 goals.

However, the Portuguese superstar was awarded the Golden Boot for having 1 assist. Patrick Schick had no assists.

If two players have the same number of goals and assists, the criteria is the number of minutes played. This happened at Euro 2012 when Fernando Torres and Mario Gomez both had 3 goals and 1 assist. However, Torres won the award after only playing 189 minutes, while Gomez played 282 minutes.

With just three goals, the top scorers at Euro 2024 have had their worst record since Euro 2012. At that time, six other players also had three goals. After the assist rate was taken into account, Torres and Gomez were selected. In the end, El Nino won thanks to fewer minutes played.

Harry Kane became the second England player to win the Euro Golden Boot after Alan Shearer at Euro 1996. The Bayern Munich striker became the fourth player in history to win both the Euro and World Cup Golden Boots after Valentin Ivanov (USSR), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia) and Gerd Muller (West Germany).