The stars have been out on the 2026 World Cup. We’re now reaching the again finish of group play, and the match’s prime scorers are distancing themselves from the pack.
We’ve been monitoring the race for the Golden Boot, the award that is given to the World Cup’s prime goal scorer. Assists are used as a tiebreaker if two or extra gamers have the identical goal whole.
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Lionel Messi retook the highest spot early in Argentina‘s knockout round-clinching victory towards Austria on Monday. Shortly after lacking a penalty kick, the Argentine legend drilled a left-footer into the bottom-left corner of the net to overhaul Germany‘s Miroslav Klose along with his report seventeenth World Cup goal. Then, simply earlier than the match wrapped, Messi scored again. He’s accounted for all 5 of his nation’s objectives and has now surpassed Brazil‘s Marta for essentially the most objectives (18) any participant’s scored in the World Cup, males’s or girls’s.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Messi’s certainly one of eight gamers with at the very least three objectives in the match so far.
World Cup 2026: Daily schedule | Group schedule, results | Standings
2026 World Cup Golden Boot race
Messi is one goal ahead of Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior, France’s Kylian Mbappé and Norway’s Erling Haaland. Vinícius Júnior netted a pair of first-half objectives on Wednesday towards Scotland. He has the sting over Mbappé and Haaland proper now, because of the help he recorded in a 3-0 victory towards Haiti final week.
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Mbappé and Haaland have discovered the again of the online twice in every of their group-stage matches. Haaland, enjoying in his first World Cup, has led Norway to the knockout round. But first, he’ll face off towards Mbappé in a Friday contest that’ll resolve the winner of Group I.
An intriguing Golden Boot contender is Germany tremendous sub Deniz Undav. He scored twice this past Saturday to run his match whole to a few objectives. He additionally has a pair of assists beneath his belt.
Both Messi and Canada’s Jonathan David have authored hat tips. Messi’s got here in Argentina’s opener towards Algeria, whereas David’s three-goal showcase arrived amid Canada’s first-ever World Cup win, a 6-0 trouncing of Qatar.
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We’ll be monitoring the Golden Boot race all through the match on this web page, so bookmark it and come again to see who’s on prime.