Alan Shearer and Wayne Rooney have urged FIFA to rethink their rules after Kylian Mbappe beat Lionel Messi to the World Cup Golden Boot.
The France striker took his tally for the tournament to 10 with two goals in Saturday’s 6-4 defeat to England in the Bronze Medal match.
Messi, meanwhile, it what might turn out to be his final World Cup match, was unable to make an impression against winners Spain, whose imperious defence didn’t even allow Argentina a shot on target over the course of 120 minutes.
The Argentina captain was, therefore, left marooned on eight goals and two adrift of Mbappe, but two former England captains felt he had been hard done by and believe goals scored in the play-off match shouldn’t count to the overall total.
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‘I was just looking at yesterday’s game the way it was played like a testimonial,’ Shearer told the BBC before kick-off.
‘France are out and Mbappe has scored his two goals. France are out.
‘Lionel Messi is playing in a World Cup final against a Spain team that have only conceded one goal and that is a lot more difficult.’
After watching a tearful Messi, who would have won the Golden Boot had he remained level with Mbape given he registered more assists, collect his runners-up medal from Donald Trump, Rooney echoed those sentiments.
‘I just think France got knocked out of the tournament and had the third and fourth play-off game,’ said Rooney.
‘Listen, I don’t (think they should count). They do obviously but I think that’s very unfair on Messi.’
After celebrating their 1-0 victory in the final Spain also scooped all of the individual player award.
Rodri won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player, Unai Simon won the Golden Glove for the top performance by a goalkeeper,.
And Pau Cubarsi made it a clean sweep by winning the Best Young Player Award, ahead of fellow 19-year-old teammate Lamine Yamal.