{"id":781613,"date":"2026-07-05T10:37:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:37:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/781613\/"},"modified":"2026-07-05T10:37:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T10:37:17","slug":"world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race-lionel-messi-kylian-mbappe-harry-kane-and-erling-haaland-in-epic-battle-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/781613\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026 Golden Boot race: Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland in epic battle | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Kylian Mbappe has pulled back level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot at the 2026 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>The superstars are delivering on the biggest stage of them all and are setting a blistering pace in the race to be the tournament&#8217;s top goalscorer in the USA, Canada and Mexico.<\/p>\n<p>Mbappe responded to Messi&#8217;s strike in Argentina&#8217;s win over Cape Verde with a cool penalty in France&#8217;s win over Paraguay. They now share top spot in the World Cup scoring charts with seven each.<\/p>\n<p>England captain Harry Kane and Norway striker Erling Haaland are also in the mix.<\/p>\n<p>How the race for the Golden Boot stands&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>        Datawrapper<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Datawrapper, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Datawrapper cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Datawrapper cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Datawrapper cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"datawrapper\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"datawrapper\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Who will win the Golden Boot? Have your say&#8230; <\/p>\n<p>        Monterosa<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Monterosa, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Monterosa cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Monterosa cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Monterosa cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"monterosa\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"monterosa\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Could more records tumble?<\/p>\n<p>Miroslav Klose started the tournament out in front on the all-time World Cup goalscoring chart with 16 goals, but both Messi and Mbappe have overtaken the ex-Germany striker.<\/p>\n<p>        Datawrapper<\/p>\n<p>                This content is provided by Datawrapper, which may be using cookies and other technologies.<br \/>\n                To show you this content, we need your permission to use cookies.<br \/>\n                You can use the buttons below to amend your preferences to enable Datawrapper cookies or to allow those cookies just once.<br \/>\n                You can change your settings at any time via the <a href=\"#privacy-options\">Privacy Options<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>                Unfortunately we have been unable to verify if you have consented to Datawrapper cookies.<br \/>\n                To view this content you can use the button below to allow Datawrapper cookies for this session only.<\/p>\n<p>                    <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-permanently\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"datawrapper\" data-show-on-fallback=\"false\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow\">Enable Cookies<\/a><br \/>\n                <a href=\"#\" class=\"ui-consent-roadblock-body__link ui-consent-roadblock-once\" data-single-click-vendor-name=\"datawrapper\" data-testid=\"consent-roadblock-allow-once\">Allow Cookies Once<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Haaland became Norway&#8217;s leading goalscorer at World Cups after just two games, while Kane has gone past Gary Lineker as England&#8217;s top World Cup scorer.<\/p>\n<p>Golden Boot contenders will be targeting Just Fontaine&#8217;s 1958 record of 13 goals in a single tournament.<\/p>\n<p>Only three players in World Cup history &#8211; Fontaine, Germany&#8217;s Gerd Muller in 1970 and Hungary&#8217;s Sandor Kocsis in 1954 &#8211; have ever hit double figures at a single tournament.<\/p>\n<p>What other records have been broken?<\/p>\n<p>Most World Cup tournaments played: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo (six each)<\/p>\n<p>First player to score in six World Cups: Cristiano Ronaldo<\/p>\n<p>Oldest player to score multiple goals in a game: Cristiano Ronaldo<\/p>\n<p>Smallest nation to appear at a World Cup: Curacao<\/p>\n<p>Most red cards in an opening match: Mexico vs South Africa (three)<\/p>\n<p>Most-attended World Cup<\/p>\n<p>Highest-scoring World Cup<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kylian Mbappe has pulled back level with Lionel Messi in the race for the Golden Boot at the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":781614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-781613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/781614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}