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The stars have been out<\/a> at the 2026 World Cup<\/a>. We’re now midway through group play, and there are a host of multi-goal scorers.<\/p>\n We’ve been tracking the race for the Golden Boot<\/a>, the award that’s given to the tournament’s top goal scorer. Assists are used as a tiebreaker if two or more players have the same goal total.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Lionel Messi<\/a> retook the top spot early in Argentina<\/a>‘s knockout round-clinching victory against Austria<\/a> on Monday. Shortly after missing a penalty kick, the Argentine legend drilled a left-footer into the bottom-left corner of the net<\/a> to overtake Germany<\/a>‘s Miroslav Klose with his record 17th World Cup goal. Then, just before the match wrapped, Messi scored again<\/a>. He’s accounted for all five of his country’s goals and has now surpassed Brazil<\/a>‘s Marta for the most goals (18) any<\/em> player\u2019s scored in the World Cup, men\u2019s or women\u2019s.<\/p>\n As of Monday afternoon, Messi’s one of 22 players with at least two goals in the tournament so far.<\/p>\n World Cup 2026<\/strong><\/a>: <\/strong>Daily schedule<\/strong><\/a> | <\/strong>Group schedule, results<\/strong><\/a> | <\/strong>Standings<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Messi is now firmly ahead of Germany’s Deniz Undav, who scored twice on Saturday to run his tournament total to three goals. Undav also has a pair of assists under his belt. He’s done all of that as a sub, by the way.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n Both Messi and Canada’s Jonathan David have authored hat tricks. Messi’s came in Argentina’s opener against Algeria<\/a>, while David’s three-goal showcase arrived amid Canada’s first-ever World Cup win, a 6-0 trouncing of Qatar<\/a>.<\/p>\n England’s Harry Kane bagged a record-tying brace against Croatia<\/a> last Wednesday. In a rematch of the teams’ 2018 World Cup semifinal, he scored on a penalty kick and a set-piece header to tie Gary Lineker as the Three Lions’ all-time leading goal scorer at the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last Tuesday \u2014 the same day Messi sparkled with three goals and France’s Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 began defending his 2022 Golden Boot with a pair of goals in a win over Senegal<\/a> \u2014 Norway’s Erling Haaland found the back of the net twice in his long-awaited World Cup debut, piloting his country to a convincing victory against Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n2026 World Cup Golden Boot race<\/h2>\n