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Mbappé surpasses Messi to become the all-time leading scorer in FIFA World Cup history
The 2026 FIFA World Cup featured a memorable scoring battle between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.
The 2026 FIFA World Cup featured a memorable scoring battle between Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé.
Messi, playing in his sixth World Cup at the age of 39, spent much of the tournament atop the all-time scoring list. However, Mbappé finished with a sensational campaign, winning the Golden Boot and becoming the highest scorer in FIFA World Cup history.
Mbappé finishes with 10 goals and a historic record
Mbappé ended the tournament with 10 goals, two more than Messi's total of 8 in the 2026 edition.
That performance lifted the French forward to 22 career World Cup goals, surpassing Messi's 21 and setting a new all-time record.
His goals came with two against Senegal, two versus Iraq in the group stage, two against Sweden in the Round of 32, one penalty against Paraguay in the Round of 16, one against Morocco in the quarterfinals and two more versus England in the third-place match.
Messi falls just short of another milestone
Messi enjoyed a prolific start to the tournament and became the World Cup's all-time leading scorer during much of the competition.
The Argentina captain finished with 8 goals, scoring three against Algeria, two versus Austria, one against Jordan, one against Cape Verde and one against Egypt.
He was unable to score in the quarterfinals, semifinals or the Final against Spain.
Even so, Messi achieved another historic milestone by becoming the first player to score in seven consecutive World Cup matches.
The 2026 World Cup also set a scoring record
The tournament concluded with 308 goals in 104 matches, comfortably surpassing the previous World Cup record of 172 goals set in Qatar 2022.
The competition averaged 2.9 goals per match, helped by the expanded format that increased the field from 32 to 48 teams and from 64 to 104 matches.
2026 World Cup top scorers
- 10 goals: Kylian Mbappé (France)
- 8 goals: Lionel Messi (Argentina)
- 7 goals: Jude Bellingham (England) and Erling Haaland (Norway)
- 6 goals: Ousmane Dembélé (France) and Harry Kane (England)
- 5 goals: Mikel Oyarzabal (Spain)
- 4 goals: Vinícius Júnior (Brazil), Julián Quiñones (Mexico) and Ismaïla Sarr (Senegal)
