FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot: Race intensifies as Messi leads Mbappe

The 2026 FIFA World Cup saw a remarkable acceleration on Tuesday (June 16) when three of contemporary football’s top names, Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kylian Mbappe (France) and Erling Haaland (Norway), scored at least two goals, with the Argentinian legend going on to net three.

Also read: Lionel Messi becomes oldest to score hat-trick in FIFA World Cup, joint highest scorer

With this, the race for the Golden Boot, awarded to the top scorer at the marquee quadrennial tournament, intensified.

Messi takes lead with 3 in first game

Messi, whose goal tally reached a history-equalling 16 (with Germany’s Miroslav Klose), pumped in all three goals for the La Albiceleste against Algeria in the teams’ opening game in the tournament. It also made him the oldest to register a World Cup hat-trick, eclipsing his contemporary rival Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal, who did the same in 2018, at the age of 33.

Haaland, Mbappe, Bolagun and others score 2 so far

Earlier in the day, Haaland scored a brace as Norway decimated Iraq 4-1 while Mbappe started from where he ended in the heartbreaking final in 2022, netting two as the former champions buried Senegal 3-1 in a late-minute surge of goals. Mbappe won the Golden Boot in the 2022 edition when France went down to Argentina in penalty shootouts. The French star also scored a hat-trick in the final.

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Among other players who have also scored two goals so far in the tournament, which is less than a week old, are: Elijah Just (New Zealand), Kai Havertz (Germany), Yasin Ayari (Sweden) and Folarin Balogun (United States).

One goal: 42 names so far

Forty-two people have scored one goal so far. They are: Nestory Irankunda and Connor Metcalfe (Australia), Marko Arnautović and Romano Schmid (Austria), Jovo Lukić (Bosnia and Herzegovina), Vinícius Júnior (Brazil), Cyle Larin (Canada), Livano Comenencia (Curacao), Ladislav Krejčí (Czech Republic), (Egma), (Emsa). Bradley Barcola (France), Nathaniel Brown, Jamal Musiala, Felix Nmecha, Nico Schlotterbeck and Deniz Undav (Germany), Mohammad Mohebi and Ramin Rezaeian (Iran), Aymen Hussein (Iraq), Amad Diallo (Ivory Coast), Daichi Kamada and Keito Nakamura (Japanese), Jordan and Jimmy Ali Julián Quiñones (Mexico), Ismael Saibari (Morocco), Virgil van Dijk and Crysencio Summerville (Netherlands), Leo Østigård (Norway), Maurício (Paraguay), Abdulelah Al-Amri (Saudi Arabia), John McGinn (Scotland), Ibrahim Mbaye (Sewang-Hoom-Oh-Om), Hyout-Oh-Hoom Korea), Viktor Gyökeres, Alexander Isak and Mattias Svanberg (Sweden), Breel Embolo (Switzerland), Omar Rekik (Tunisia), Giovanni Reyna (US) and Maximiliano Araújo (Uruguay).

South Africa, Haiti, Turkey, Ecuador, Spain, Cape Verde and Algeria are yet to score a goal.

Past records: Just Fontaine slammed 13 in one edition

Twenty-eight players in all bagged the honours of scoring the most goals in a single edition of the World Cup. The name ‘Golden Boot’ first came into use in 1982. It was first called the Golden Shoe Award and got its current name in 2010. However, top scorers of every tournament are retroactively recognised as winners of the crown.

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Here are the names of the top scorers of all World Cups since its inception in 1930:

1930, Uruguay: Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) Goals scored (GS): 8

1934, Italy: Oldrich Nejedly (formerly Czechoslovakia) GS: 5

1938, France: Leonidas (Brazil) GS: 7

1950, Brazil: Ademir (Brazil) GS: 9

1954, Switzerland: Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) GS: 11

1958, Sweden: Just Fontaine (France) GS: 13

1962, Chile: Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Garrincha (Brazil), Vava (Brazil), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia) and Leonel Sanchez (Chile) GS: 4

1966, England: Eusebio (Portugal) GS: 9

1970, Mexico: Gerd Muller (Germany) GS: 10

1974, West Germany: Grzegorz Lato (Poland) GS: 7

1978, Argentina: Mario Kempes (Argentina) GS: 6

1982, Spain: Paolo Rossi (Italy) GS: 6

1986, Mexico: Gary Lineker (England) GS: 6

1990, Italy: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) GS: 6

1994, USA: Oleg Salenko (Russia) Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) GS: 6 each

1998, France: Davor Suker (Croatia) GS: 6

2002, South Korea/Japan: Ronaldo (Brazil) GS: 8

2006, Germany: Miroslav Klose (Germany) GS: 5

2010, South Africa: Thomas Muller (Germany) GS: 5

2014, Brazil: James Rodríguez (Colombia) GS: 6

2018, Russia: Harry Kane (England) GS: 6

2022, Qatar: Kylian Mbappe (France) GS: 8