The 2026 FIFA World Cup witnessed a night to remember with Lionel Messi becoming the highest scorer in the event’s history and Kylian Mbappe making a strong pursuit to overcome the Argentinian great.
Messi scored two goals on Monday to take his tally to 18, going past the previous highest of 16 goals by German striker Miroslav Klose. Later on Monday, Mbappe jumped into the scene by taking his tally to 16 goals. He scored two against Iraq in his 100th appearance for France.
Considering the early trend, there is a possibility of the Golden Boot winner ending with double figures. France’s Just Fontaine (13 in 1958), Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis (11 in 1954) and Germany’s Gerd Muller (10 in 1970) were the only players to reach double digits in a single World Cup.
The 38-year-old Messi leads the chart with five goals. He had a hat-trick against Algeria in Kansas City, his first World Cup hat-trick, followed by two goals against Austria.
Messi, who is the youngest ever and oldest ever scorer for Argentina, missed an early penalty in the ninth minute against Austria, which could have helped him complete a hat-trick. His opener came in the 38th minute, followed by another in the dying minutes. He has now scored in six consecutive World Cup matches. Only two players have done that before, Fontaine in 1958 and Brazil’s Jairzinho in 1970.
The 27-year-old Mbappe, who scored four goals in 2018 and eight in 2022, has already scored four in this edition. He scored twice in France’s opener against Senegal and added two more against Iraq. He has also passed Olivier Giroud as France’s all-time leading scorer. Mbappe is looking to become the first player to win back-to-back Golden Boot awards.
