{"id":775207,"date":"2026-07-21T04:52:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/775207\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T04:52:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T04:52:31","slug":"lionel-messi-kylian-mbappe-erling-haaland-among-nominees-for-2026-world-cup-goal-of-the-tournament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/775207\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland among nominees for 2026 World Cup Goal of the Tournament"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 2026 World Cup<\/a> belonged to the game\u2019s biggest icons, with marquee superstars delivering unforgettable performances across North America. With the tournament now in the books, FIFA has opened voting for one of its most anticipated individual honors: the 2026 World Cup Goal of the Tournament, featuring a star-studded list headed by Lionel Messi<\/a>, Kylian Mbapp\u00e9, and Erling Haaland.<\/p>\n

This expanded edition proved to be the highest-scoring tournament in FIFA history, shattering previous records with a staggering 308 goals across 104 matches. Following Sunday\u2019s final, FIFA officially unveiled a 12-goal shortlist for fans to crown the tournament\u2019s single finest strike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, Messi earned a nomination among his eight tournament goals, with FIFA selecting his opening-match stunner against Algeria. Back on June 16, the Argentine captain collected a crisp pass from Rodrigo De Paul in the central channel before whipping a curled, long-range laser past Luca Zidane into the top-right corner to kick off his team\u2019s campaign in style.<\/p>\n

Earlier that same day, Mbappe<\/a> put on a shooting display of his own, capping a two-goal performance to lead France past Senegal 3-1 in their group-stage opener. Standing 32 yards out from Edouard Mendy\u2019s goal, the Real Madrid superstar unleashed a thunderous strike that clipped the underside of the crossbar, marking his 58th career goal for Les Bleus to become his country\u2019s all-time leading scorer.<\/p>\n

Haaland<\/a> also earned a nod after authoring a legendary chapter in Norwegian soccer history. On July 5 against Brazil in the Round of 16, the physically imposing striker latched onto a delicate layoff from Andreas Schjelderup at the edge of the 18-yard box, hammering a blistering crossed shot home to seal an iconic 2-1 upset victory over the Canarinha.<\/p>\n

\"FIFA<\/p>\n

see also<\/p>\n

FIFA Ranking update after 2026 World Cup: Lamine Yamal\u2019s Spain climbs to No. 1, Messi\u2019s Argentina and Ronaldo\u2019s Portugal drop<\/p>\n

<\/a>The other candidatesKerim Alajbegovic \u2014 Bosnia and Herzegovina vs. Qatar (1-0), Group B, 24 June.Julian Alvarez<\/a> \u2014 Argentina vs. Switzerland (2-1), 11 July.Jude Bellingham \u2014 England vs. France (4-6), 18 July.Sidny Lopes Cabral \u2014 Cabo Verde vs. Argentina (2-2), 3 July.Wilson Isidor \u2014 Haiti vs. Morocco (2-1), Group C, 24 June.Elijah Just \u2014 New Zealand vs. IR Iran (1-0), Group G, 15 June.Daizen Maeda \u2014 Japan vs. Sweden (1-0), Group F, 25 June.Eldor Shomurodov \u2014 Uzbekistan vs. Congo DR (1-0), Group K, 28 June.Ferran Torres<\/a> \u2014 Spain vs. Argentina (1-0), Final, 19 July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 World Cup belonged to the game\u2019s biggest icons, with marquee superstars delivering unforgettable performances across North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775208,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[53623,116892,96554,65679,6865,403,99],"class_list":["post-775207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-erling-haaland","tag-ferran-torres","tag-julian-alvarez","tag-kylian-mbappe","tag-lionel-messi","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775207"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775207\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}