The 2026 FIFA World Cup, the first-ever 48-team edition of the tournament, draws to a close this weekend after six weeks of football across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Defending champions Argentina face Spain in the final at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, on Sunday, July 19, with Lionel Messi eyeing a second World Cup title against Lamine Yamal's La Roja, who are chasing their first since 2010.
France and England meet in Saturday's third-place play-off. Along the way, the expanded, 104-match edition has already rewritten football's record books. From Messi becoming the all-time leading scorer in men's World Cup history to a new group-stage goal tally, here is a look at the biggest individual and team records set at this year's tournament so far.
Also read: The economic goal that never came: World Cup falls short of boosting Mexico
Top Scorers at FIFA World Cup 2026
Lionel Messi has entered the history books as the outright all-time leading goal-scorer in men's World Cup history. The Argentina captain drew level with Germany's Miroslav Klose on 16 career goals with a hat-trick against Algeria in the tournament opener, then went past him with a brace against Austria to move to 18. By July 11, Messi's career tally stood at 21 goals, with France's Kylian Mbappe in pursuit on 20.
In the race for this edition's Golden Boot, Messi and Mbappe were tied at eight goals apiece heading into the final weekend, the most in the tournament. Messi moved ahead on the assists tiebreaker after setting up two goals in Argentina's dramatic 2-1 semi-final win over England. Norway's Erling Haaland, whose side were eliminated in the quarter-finals, finished on seven goals, while England's Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham were tied on six. It marked the first time three players; Messi, Mbappe and Haaland, each scored seven or more goals in a single World Cup.
Most Assists in FIFA World Cup 2026
France's Michael Olise topped the tournament's assist charts with five, including a brace each in comfortable wins over Iraq and Sweden. Norway's Martin Odegaard and Morocco's Brahim Diaz followed with four apiece.
Messi added a historic milestone of his own here too. His assist in Argentina's Round of 16 win over Egypt took his career World Cup assist tally to nine, breaking his tie with Diego Maradona to become the outright leader in that category as well, reached across 31 World Cup matches over six tournaments, compared with Maradona's 21 matches over four editions.
Most Clean Sheets at FIFA World Cup 2026
Spain's Unai Simon was the standout performer between the posts, going 650 consecutive minutes without conceding a goal across the 2022 and 2026 tournaments — a new World Cup record, surpassing Italy's Walter Zenga, who had gone 517 minutes without conceding in 1990. The streak was ended by Belgium's Charles De Ketelaere in the quarter-finals. Spain went into the final having kept five clean sheets in five matches and conceding just once in the entire tournament, a joint World Cup record for defensive miserliness.
Biggest Wins of FIFA World Cup 2026
Germany's 7-1 demolition of Curacao in the group stage was the tournament's biggest winning margin so far, with Kai Havertz among the scorers. The result also made Curacao, a nation of roughly 150,000 people, the smallest country ever to score at a World Cup. It remains well short of the all-time record: Hungary's 10-1 win over El Salvador in 1982 is still the biggest margin in men's World Cup history.
Also read: FIFA World Cup 2026: Messi's World Cup greatness, one record at a time
Other lopsided results this edition included Canada's 6-0 win over Qatar, Portugal's 5-0 win over Uzbekistan and Senegal's 5-0 win over Iraq, the latter also making Senegal the first African nation to score five goals in a single World Cup match. Separately, Japan's 4-0 win over Tunisia stood out as the biggest win by an Asian nation at a World Cup.
Fastest Goals Scored at FIFA World Cup 2026
Morocco's Ismael Saibari initially set the pace with a strike after 69 seconds against Scotland, before Paraguay's Matias Galarza went quicker still, scoring in 65 seconds against Turkiye to hold the record for the tournament's fastest goal. Both strikes, however, remain far off the all-time World Cup record: Turkey's Hakan Sukur scored in just 11 seconds against South Korea in 2002, still the fastest goal in tournament history.
By The Numbers
- 215 goals were scored in the group stage alone, a new World Cup record (up from 172 at Qatar 2022)
- Argentina's Enzo Fernandez scored the 3,000th goal in men's World Cup history, against Egypt in the Round of 16
- Curacao became the smallest nation ever to play at a World Cup; Cape Verde became the smallest to reach the knockout stage
- A record nine African teams advanced to the knockout rounds, more than double the previous best of two
- Mexico won four consecutive World Cup matches for the first time, a CONCACAF record
With the final between Spain and Argentina and Saturday's third-place play-off between France and England still to be played, some of these tallies could yet change before the tournament closes.
