World Cup Golden Boot live rankings: Updated goal totals for Messi, Mbappe and more 2026 scoring leaders
· Yahoo Sports
World Cup Golden Boot live rankings: Updated goal totals for Messi, Mbappe and more 2026 scoring leaders originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Visit newsbetsport.bond for more information.
Nearly two weeks into the 2026 World Cup, group-stage play is slowly but surely approaching its end. This means that high-stakes soccer is nearly upon World Cup viewers.
In this year's tournament so far, the top of the goalscoring charts features some of the world's best. For the second year in a row, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe are in the top two thus far.
There are some new names that have written themselves in the stat books for the first time. Erling Haaland, Vinicius Jr., Deniz Undav, and more have shared personalities with a global audience through putting the ball in the back of the net.
Here are the players at the top of this World Cup's chart so far as the leading scorers.
2026 WORLD CUP HQ:Latest World Cup news | Full World Cup schedule | Buy World Cup tickets
World Cup Golden Boot rankings 2026
Lionel Messi continues to be in the lead as of Friday, June 26, with five goals in his two matches so far. The trio of Vinicius Junior, Erling Haaland and Kylian Mbappe each have four.
RankPlayerTeamGoals(Penalties)AssistsMatches1.Lionel MessiArgentina5 (0)022.Kylian MbappeFrance4 (0)03=Erling HaalandNorway4 (0)02=Ousmane DembeleFrance4 (0)03=Vinicius JuniorBrazil4 (0)136.Deniz UndavGermany3 (0)23=Jonathan DavidCanada3 (0)03=Matheus CunhaBrazil3 (0)03=Ismael SaibariMorocco3 (0)03=Brian BrobbeyNetherlands3 (0)03=Johan ManzambiSwitzerland3(0)03=Elijah JustNew Zealand3 (0)03=Ismaila SarrSenegal3 (0)13=Yoane WissaDR Congo3 (1)03
Odds to win 2026 World Cup Golden Boot
The winners of the previous two World Cup Golden Boots led the pre-tournament betting in 2026, with France star Kylian Mbappe the marginal favorite ahead of England captain Harry Kane with DraftKings Sportsbook.
Norway are not expected to go as deep into the tournament as France or England, but Erling Haaland's remarkable record of 55 goals in 50 internationals means it would be no surprise to see him in a familiar position at the top of the standings.
Haaland and Mikel Oyarzabal, who is expected to start as Spain's central attacker, are ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo in the betting as the veteran superstars compete in their sixth World Cups.
PlayerCountryDraftKings SportsbookKylian MbappeFrance+330Lionel MessiArgentina+400Harry KaneEngland+450Mikal OyarzabalSpain+900Erling HaalandNorway+1200Deniz UvdavGermany+1800Vinicius JuniorBrazil+2000Kai HavertzGermany+2000Matheus CunhaBrazil+2200Who won World Cup 2022 Golden Boot?
Kylian Mbappe made history by becoming the first man since England hero Geoff Hurst in 1966 to score a hat-trick in the World Cup final.
Mbappe also converted his penalty in the shootout after a thrilling 3-3 draw against Argentina, but Les Bleus ultimately came up agonisingly short.
There was at least the consolation for Mbappe of taking home the Golden Boot, following on from his four-goal showing on his triumphant World Cup debut in 2018.
RankPlayerTeamGoals(Penalties)AssistsMatches1.Kylian MbappeFrance8 (2)272.Lionel MessiArgentina7 (4)373.Julian AlvarezArgentina4 (0)17Olivier GiroudFrance4 (0)065.Goncalo RamosPortugal3 (0)14Alvaro MorataSpain3 (0)14Bukayo SakaEngland3 (0)14RicharlisonBrazil3 (0)14Marcus RashfordEngland3 (0)05Enner ValenciaEcuador3 (1)03Cody GakpoNetherlands3 (0)0512.Bruno FernandesPortugal2 (1)34Harry KaneEngland2 (1)35Niclas FullkrugGermany2 (0)13Vincent AboubakarCameroon2 (0)13Mehdi TaremiIran2 (1)13NeymarBrazil2 (1)13Robert LewandowskiPoland2 (1)14Wout WeghorstNetherlands2 (0)04Rafael LeaoPortugal2 (0)05Kai HavertzGermany2 (0)02Giorgian de ArrascaetaUruguay2 (0)02Ritsu DoanJapan2 (0)04Ferran TorresSpain2 (1)04Mohammed KudusGhana2 (0)03Aleksandar MitrovicSerbia2 (0)03Salem AldawsariS. Arabia2 (0)03Cho Gue-sungS. Korea2 (0)04Breel EmboloSwitzerland2 (0)03Andrej KramaricCroatia2 (0)07Youssef En-NesyriMorocco2 (0)07
Every World Cup Golden Boot winner
There have been 22 men's World Cup tournaments and 22 different winners of the Golden Boot.
A scan of the all-time winners below makes it clear that it's not always the star players who come away with the prestigious award.
YearPlayerNation Goals1930Guillermo StabileArgentina81934Oldrich Nejedly Czechoslovakia51938LeonidasBrazil71950AdemirBrazil81954Sandor KocsisHungary111958Just FontaineFrance131962Florian AlbertHungary41966EusebioPortugal91970Gerd MullerWest Germany101974Grzegorz LatoPoland71978Mario KempesArgentina61982Paolo RossiItaly61986Gary LinekerEngland61990Salvatore SchillaciItaly61994Oleg SalenkoRussia61998Davor SukerCroatia62002RonaldoBrazil82006Miroslav KloseGermany 52010Thomas MullerGermany52014James RodriguezColombia62018Harry KaneEngland62022Kylian MbappeFrance8How many Golden Boot winners also won the World Cup?
There have been 22 previous editions of the men's FIFA World Cup, but there have only been three occasions when the champion also had a player atop the Golden Boot rankings.
The first one came in 1978, as Mario Kempes helped lead Argentina to triumph on home soil, including two goals in the final against the Netherlands.
In the following edition, it was another goal poacher, this time Italian forward Paolo Rossi, who also scored in the final to help the Azzurri cap their magical run with the title.
Another 20 years passed before the next player to do it, and it was one of the all-time greats. Brazil forward Ronaldo was the star of the 2002 World Cup, and he delivered for his country, scoring both goals in the final against Germany.
Ronaldo's eight goals in that 2002 tournament are the most scored in a single tournament since Germany's Gerd Muller hit double digits in 1970.
Who has the most goals in World Cup history?
There is a new leader for the most goals in World Cup history.
Lionel Messi entered the 2026 tournament three goals behind Miroslav Klose's record of 16. The Argentina star needed just two matches to surpass the German's total, tying the record with a hat trick in the opening game against Algeria before breaking the record against Austria.
PlayerNationGoalsTournamentsLionel MessiArgentina182006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022, 2026Miroslav KloseGermany162002, 2006, 2010, 2014Ronaldo Brazil151994, 1998, 2002, 2006Gerd MullerGermany141970, 1974Kylian MbappeFrance142018, 2022, 2026Just FontaineFrance131958PeleBrazil121958, 1962, 1966, 1970Sandor KocsisHungary111954Jurgen KlinsmannGermany111990, 1994, 1998Helmut RahnGermany101954, 1958Gary LinekarEngland101986, 1990Gabriel BatistutaArgentina101994, 1998, 2002Teofilo CubillasPeru101970, 1974, 1982Thomas MullerGermany10 2010, 2014, 2018Grzegorz LatoPoland101974, 1978, 1982