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2026 World Cup Golden Boot: Mbappé vs. Messi Standings As Final Looms
The 2026 World Cup will be remembered as an edition where the stars came out to play.
Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland and more have lit up North America enchanting fans both new and old, while setting up one of the most exciting Golden Boot races in the tournament’s 96-year history.
With just one more opportunity left to add to his total, Messi has the chance to do the unthinkable at the age of 39.
What Is the Golden Boot Award?
The World Cup Golden Boot goes to the tournament's top goal scorer. Unlike the media-voted Golden Ball, this one is purely a numbers game: most goals wins. In modern editions, assists has served as the tiebreaker if scorers are level.
Historic recipients include Just Fontaine, whose 13 goals at the 1958 tournament for France remain a single-edition record, along with icons Gerd Müller, Ronaldo, Miroslav Klose, and Mbappé—the 2022 winner with eight goals.
No player has ever won the Boot twice, while Messi is yet to claim the award.
Every FIFA World Cup Golden Boot Winner in History
Year | Golden Boot Winner | Goals |
|---|---|---|
1930 | Guillermo Stábile (Argentina) | 8 |
1934 | Oldřich Nejedlý (Czechoslovakia) | 5 |
1938 | Leônidas (Brazil) | 7 |
1950 | Ademir (Brazil) | 9 |
1954 | Sándor Kocsis (Hungary) | 11 |
1958 | Just Fontaine (France) | 13 |
1962 | Flórián Albert (Hungary) | 4 |
1966 | Eusébio (Portugal) | 9 |
1970 | Gerd Müller (West Germany) | 10 |
1974 | Grzegorz Lato (Poland) | 7 |
1978 | Mario Kempes (Argentina) | 6 |
1982 | Paolo Rossi (Italy) | 6 |
1986 | Gary Lineker (England) | 6 |
1990 | Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) | 6 |
1994 | Oleg Salenko (Russia) | 6 |
1998 | Davor Šuker (Croatia) | 6 |
2002 | Ronaldo (Brazil) | 8 |
2006 | Miroslav Klose (Germany) | 5 |
2010 | Thomas Müller (Germany) | 5 |
2014 | James Rodríguez (Colombia) | 6 |
2018 | Harry Kane (England) | 6 |
2022 | Kylian Mbappé | 8 |
The Top Contenders to Win the Golden Boot—Ranked
On only five previous occasions has a player required more than eight goals to take home the Golden Boot trophy, and never before have there been two or more players with that total.
Messi and Mbappé were tied on eight before the Frenchman’s two-goal haul against England in the ‘Bronze Final’—a brace that took him up to an astounding 10 goals. It’s now over to Messi against Spain ...
Who Else Was in Contention?
Mikel Oyarzabal, in theory, still has a chance to win the Golden Boot, but he’d need to score six goals against Argentina to reach the summit—that’s simply not going to happen.
Current Ballon d’Or holder Ousmane Dembélé ended the tournament with six goals, alongside England captain Harry Kane—Dembélé placing higher on the basis of having grabbed one more assist.
Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland both scored seven for England and Norway respectively, reflecting just how many of the game’s top stars balled out at this World Cup.
2. Lionel Messi
Goals: 8
Assists: 2
Anyone who thought Messi’s 2022 World Cup displays were impossible to top has been proven very wrong, as the 39-year-old continues to defy age in a way that will surely be piquing the interest of several Silicon Valley billionaires.
This summer, Messi became both the all-time leading World Cup goalscorer and assist maker (10)—though he lost the former prize to the guy he’s trying to usurp at the top of this Golden Boot race.
1. Kylian Mbappé
Goals: 10
Assists: 4
Now ahead of Messi in the all-time charts is Mbappé (22) and it’s hard not to imagine the Frenchman going on to breach the 30, possibly even 35 mark before his international career ends.
Mbappé has been irresistible at this World Cup, scoring or assisting at least once in every match he’s played until an anonymous semifinal showing against Spain. He bounced back against England even though France lost a ridiculous game 6–4, scoring twice and setting up another.
READ THE LATEST WORLD CUP NEWS, ANALYSIS AND INSIGHT FROM SI FC
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Andy Headspeath is a Real Madrid correspondent for Sports Illustrated FC. Originally from the UK, the weather, culture and soccer lured him to Spain over a decade ago where he lives with his wife, son and two untrainable dogs. A player of unspeakably limited talents and only one fully functional knee, he has more than a decade's experience in a wide variety of editorial roles within sports media, from match reporting to in-depth feature writing and interviews. He specializes in soccer history and culture, as well as—of course—La Liga.