World Cup 2026: Lionel Messi leading Golden Boot race, ahead of pack that includes Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane Andy BackstromThu, June 18, 2026 at 1:01 AM UTC 0 The stars have been out at the 2026 World Cup. It&x27;s been less than a week of groupplay competition, and there are already of host of multigoal scorers. It isn&x27;t too early to start tracking the Golden Boot race. The award is given to the tournament&x27;s top goalscorer. Assists are used as a tiebreaker if two or more players finish with the same goal total.
World Cup 2026: Lionel Messi leading Golden Boot race, ahead of pack that includes Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, Harry Kane
Andy BackstromThu, June 18, 2026 at 1:01 AM UTC
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The stars have been out at the 2026 World Cup. It's been less than a week of group-play competition, and there are already of host of multi-goal scorers.
It isn't too early to start tracking the Golden Boot race. The award is given to the tournament's top goalscorer. Assists are used as a tiebreaker if two or more players finish with the same goal total.
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 Wednesday night, 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.
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2026 World Cup Golden Boot race
1
Lionel Messi
Argentina
3
T-2
Folarin Balogun
2
T-2
Kai Havertz
Germany
2
T-2
Yasin Ayari
Sweden
2
T-2
Eli Just
New Zealand
2
T-2
Harry Kane
England
2
T-2
Erling Haaland
Norway
2
T-2
Kylian Mbappé
France
2
Argentina's Lionel Messi is out in front, thanks to his head-turning hat trick, his first in his illustrious World Cup career. As a result of his prolific outing versus Algeria, Messi, soon to be 39, is now tied with Germany's Miroslav Klose for the most goals in World Cup history.
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.
Of course, last Friday, 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 and New Zealand's Eli Just.
Source: "AOL Sports"
Source: Sports
Published: June 18, 2026 at 04:27AM on Source: RED MAG
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