This World Cup belongs to the centre forwards, a throwback to an era when the most feared players on the pitch wore No. 9 or No. 10 and goals flowed freely.
This World Cup has also highlighted how rare truly prolific goalscorers have become. Since the 1970 World Cup in Mexico, when Gerd Müller scored 10 goals for West Germany, only two players have managed to score more than seven goals in a single edition. Ronaldo Nazario, one of the great centre forwards in history, amassed eight goals in 2002 to inspire Brazil to lift the trophy, and Kylian Mbappé matched the tally in 2022, though France fell short in the final against Argentina.
However, at the 2026 edition, the scoring chart has gone out of control. Mbappé and Lionel Messi have already scored 8 goals each. Norway’s Erling Haaland is close behind on 7, while England’s Harry Kane has six. Mbappé’s teammate Ousmane Dembele, with five goals, has some catching up to do, but the way France are playing, it will probably be unwise to write him off.
The numbers underline how extraordinary this tournament has been. The Golden Boot winners in 2006 and 2010 — Germany’s prolific strikers Miroslav Klose and Thomas Muller respectively — both won with 5 goals, while Colombia’s James Rodriguez won the 2014 race with 6, as did Kane in 2018.
This, in fact, is the first World Cup in the tournament’s history where three players have scored seven or more goals, making it a Golden Boot race unlike any before.
In almost a century of World Cup football, only eight players have scored eight or more goals in a single tournament. France’s Just Fontaine’s 13 goals in 1958 has long seemed like an unrepeatable feat. Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis scored 11 in 1954, while Muller struck 10 in 1970. Since then, no player has reached double figures at a World Cup.
FIFA World Cup 2026: Norway, England Ambassadors gear up for blockbuster WC QF
That could change soon. From just three in 22 previous tournaments, the 2026 World Cup may just see three players do it in a single edition.
It’s not just the volume of goals scored by Mbappé, Messi, Haaland and Kane that has made this tournament so special, but also the manner in which they have scored. These four forwards are as distinct from each other as it can get, but there’s one common thread that binds them — their preternatural ability to find the net, in any condition, under any circumstances, irrespective of their opponents’ quality or tactics, often with little respect for the flow of the game.
