Kylian Mbappe finished the 2026 World Cup as top scorer on ten goals and became the first player to win the Golden Boot at two separate World Cups, 2022 and 2026 1. He had closed his own account in the third-place match on Saturday 18 July . Lionel Messi could still have caught him in Sunday's final. Messi did not score, and the award was settled on Sunday without Mbappe kicking a ball.
Mbappe reached the mark from a France side beaten in the semi-finals and finishing fourth, and he took the award without playing in the match that decided it. He had drawn level with Messi on eight goals on 9 July and pulled clear over the following week.
His other record has nothing to do with the Golden Boot, and most coverage has merged the two. Mbappe passed Messi to become the World Cup's all-time leading scorer, 22 career goals to 21, during the third-place match . England won that match 6-4, the highest-scoring bronze final ever played. Messi had held the all-time record only since 27 June , so it changed hands twice inside one tournament.
