Kylian Mbappé just netted his seventh goal of the 2026 FIFA World Cup, pulling level with Lionel Messi atop the Golden Boot standings. Two of the greatest players to ever touch a football are now locked in a scoring race during the knockout stages of a tournament co-hosted by Canada, Mexico, and the US.
The Golden Boot battle by the numbers
Mbappé’s seventh goal puts him shoulder to shoulder with Messi in what has become the defining individual storyline of the tournament. Both players had been sitting on six goals each before Mbappé found the back of the net to draw level.
Mbappé has now accumulated 18 career World Cup goals across multiple tournaments. That figure places him just one behind Messi, who holds the all-time record with somewhere between 19 and 20 career World Cup goals depending on the counting methodology.
They shared a pitch in the 2022 World Cup final in Qatar, where Mbappé scored a hat trick in a losing effort. Now they’re competing for the same individual honor again, except this time it’s happening across separate matches rather than on the same field.
