The stars have been out at the 2026 World Cup. It’s already been a week of the group stage, and there are a host of multi-goal scorers.
It isn’t too early to start tracking the race for the Golden Boot, the award is given to the tournament’s top goal scorer. Assists are used as a tiebreaker if two or more players finish with the same goal total.
Advertisement
Kylian Mbappé earned the prestigious honor during the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He mounted eight goals while leading France to the doorstep of another title. Mbappé opened the scoring gates in France’s first match of this year’s World Cup.
As of Thursday evening, he’s one of eight players with at least two goals in the tournament so far. And he’s not the only former Golden Boot winner in the mix. So is England‘s Harry Kane, who claimed the honor with six goals during the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
World Cup 2026: Daily schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings
Argentina’s Lionel Messi is out in front, thanks to his head-turning hat trick, the first in his illustrious World Cup career. As a result of his prolific outing versus Algeria, Messi is now tied with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the most goals in World Cup history.
Advertisement
Kane bagged a record-tying brace against Croatia on Wednesday. In rematch of the teams’ 2018 World Cup semifinal, he scored on a penalty kick and a set-piece header to tie Gary Lineker as the Three Lions’ all-time leading goal scorer at the World Cup.
On Tuesday — the same day Messi sparkled and Mbappé scored a pair of goals in a win over Senegal — Norway’s Erling Haaland found the back of the net twice in his long-awaited World Cup debut, piloting his country to a convincing victory against Iraq.
If you missed any of those performances, you can relive the nine combined goals scored by Messi, Kane, Mbappé and Haaland.
Advertisement
Of course, last Friday, the USMNT‘s Folarin Balogun became a household name in the U.S. He accounted for half of the Americans’ scoring in a 4-1 statement-making win over Paraguay. The other three players with two goals in this year’s World Cup are Germany’s Kai Havertz, Sweden’s Yasin Ayari, New Zealand’s Eli Just and Switzerland’s Johan Manzambi.
