The Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) has admitted they made a mistake giving Kelechi Nwakali the 2015 U-17 World Cup bronze boot instead of Samuel Chukwueze.
Chukwueze who played for 535 minutes, and Nwakali who played for 630 minutes were tied on three goals and three assists, but Nwakali was awarded the prize being the third highest goal scorer despite having more playing time than his teammate.
In a letter to the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), FIFA wrote:
We made a mistake at the closing ceremony of the FIFA U-17 World Cup Chile 2015 with the distribution of the Adidas Bronze Boot.
Instead of player No. 8 of Nigeria – Samuel Chukwueze – the player, Kelechi Nwakali (player No. 10 of Nigeria) received the Adidas Bronze Boot. If two or more players are tied on number of goals and assists, the player who has played fewer number of minutes will be ranked first.
With this in mind, Adidas will send you another Bronze Boot in December 2015, which we would kindly ask you to hand over to Samuel Chukwueze. Please be informed that Kelechi Nwakali may keep his trophy.
Nigeria’s Victor Osimhen won the Golden Boot Award with 10 goals, while Germany’s Johannes Eggestein walked away with the Silver Boot having scored four goals.