Top goal scorers at FIFA World Cup 2026: Messi leads in golden boot’s race; Check full list

The brace against Austria put Messi on the top in the race for the Golden Boot in FIFA World Cup 2026.

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick for Argentina against Algeria at FIFA World Cup in his 200th game for the country. (AP Photo)

Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick for Argentina against Algeria in his 200th game for the country. (AP Photo)

3 min readJun 23, 2026 03:23 PM IST First published on: Jun 22, 2026 at 10:49 PM IST

The first round of group-stage matches at the FIFA World Cup 2026 was full of action. Stars like Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, Erling Haaland, and Harry Kane all stepped up for their teams. The second round kept that energy going, and the excitement never stopped at the quadrennial event.

Messi lit up the show with three goals against Algeria in Argentina’s opening game, making him the oldest player ever in the history of the tournament to register a hat-trick. With his brace against Austria on Monday, the Argentine now leads the race for the Golden Boot with 5 goals. Kylian Mbappe, of France, and Erling Haaland, of Norway, both also scored braces against Iraq and Senegal respectively, adding two more to their tally and going joint-second in the race for the Golden Boot with 4 goals each.

Juventus striker Jonathan David also scored a brilliant hat-trick in co-hosts Canada’s 6–0 rout of Qatar. Germany’s Deniz Undav is level with David on 3 goals, after scoring a brace in Germany’s 2-1 win over Ivory Coast. He had also found the back of the net in Germany’s rout 7-1 over Curacao.

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Undav also has only 69 minutes of game time to his name, having come in as a substitute for Germany in both matches. In addition to three goals, the German has two assists to his name, both coming against Curacao, as he leads the list of players with the most goal contributions in this tournament.

The list includes a few big names like Kylian Mbappe, who scored a brace in France’s 3-0 win over Iraq and now has 16 goals in the World Cup overall. Norway’s Erling Haaland is joint-second with Mbappe on 4 goals. Canada’s Jonathan David and Germany’s Deniz Undav are level on third with 3 goals each. Brazil’s Vinicius Junior & Matheus Cunha, England’s Harry Kane, Netherlands’ Crysencio Summerville, Brian Brobbey and Cody Gakpo, Spain’s Mikel Oyarzabal are among the few players who have scored two goals in this World Cup so far.

Check the complete list of the top leading goal scorers at this World Cup:

Top goalscorers in FIFA World Cup 2026

RANK	PLAYER	COUNTRY	GOALS SCORED	MINUTES PLAYED
1	Lionel Messi	Argentina	5	187
2	Kylian Mbappe	France	4	199
T2	Erling Haaland	Norway	4	207
3	Deniz Undav	Germany	3	69
T3	Jonathan David	Canada	3	170
4	Crysencio Summerville	Netherlands	2	123
T4	Mikel Oyarzabal	Spain	2	149
T4	Maxi Araujo	Uruguay	2	173
T4	Avase Ueda	Japan	2	174
T4	Cody Gakpo	Netherlands	2	181
T4	Vinicius Junior	Brazil	2	190
T4	Johan Manzambi	Switzerland	2	58
T4	Brian Brobbey	Netherlands	2	88
T4	Harry Kane	England	2	102
T4	Matheus Cunha	Brazil	2	108
T4	Cyle Larin	Canada	2	125
T4	Daichi Kamada	Japan	2	176
T4	Folarin Balogun	USA	2	179
T4	Ismael Saibari	Morocco	2	180
T4	Yasin Ayari	Sweden	2	183
T4	Ismaila Sarr	Senegal	2	185
T4	Elijah Just	New Zealand	2	190

(Table updated after Jordan vs Algeria FIFA World Cup match 2026)