2026 World Cup Golden Boot: Most goals, standings

We are almost a week into the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and that means it is the perfect time to start looking at one of the big stories from this tournament every four years.

The chase for the Golden Boot.

The 2026 World Cup could see history, given the presence of Kylian Mbappe. In the history of this event, no player has ever won the Golden Boot twice. After winning the Golden Boot at the 2022 World Cup, Mbappe could become the first player to achieve that feat, if he were to win again this year.

Mbappe’s brace against Senegal got his campaign for a second Golden Boot off to a strong start, but Lionel Messi’s hat trick against Algeria put the Argentina legend atop the list after his opening match.

Here are the current standings in the chase for the Golden Boot. You will note that assists and minutes played are listed, as those are the two tiebreakers in determining the winner of the Golden Boot. In the case of ties, the player with the most assists is ranked ahead.

Should there still be a tie, the player with the fewest minutes played is ranked ahead.

Update: With a pair of assists against England, Lionel Messi has moved back into first place.

Update (Sunday, July 19): Mbappé’s big day in the third-place match means Messi has to do something special in the World Cup Final to take home the Golden Boot.

After Spain’s 2-0 win over France, we have trimmed this list even more. Only players with four or more goals are included. For the full list you can see the FIFA website.

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Note: Table last updated following England-France on July 18. In addition, the list has been trimmed to players with four goals or more as noted above.

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