Kylian Mbappe, the star of the French national team, rose to the top of the list of scorers in the current edition of the 2026 FIFA World Cup after scoring two goals in the third-place match.
Thomas Tuchel's team succeeded in winning the bronze medal after defeating the French team by six goals to four.
Despite France's loss, Kylian Mbappe benefited from that match, scoring two goals and raising his tally to 10 goals, topping the list of scorers in that edition of the World Cup.
Lionel Messi is second on that list with 8 goals and will play in today's World Cup final with Argentina against Spain.
Has Kylian Mbappé secured the Golden Boot award for the World Cup? The answer is no, as Lionel Messi has three scenarios in which he can snatch it from him, as follows:
If Lionel Messi manages to score a hat-trick in the Argentina-Spain match, his goal tally will rise to 11 goals, surpassing Kylian Mbappe in the top scorers list, and thus he will win the Golden Boot award.
If Lionel Messi manages to score a hat-trick in the Argentina-Spain match, his goal tally will rise to 11 goals, surpassing Kylian Mbappe in the top scorers list and thus winning the Golden Boot award.
If Lionel Messi manages to score two goals in today's match against Spain, his goal tally will rise to 10 goals, equaling Kylian Mbappe's total.
In that case, the number of assists will be used to calculate the award along with the goals.
If Messi scores a goal against Spain, his tally of assists will rise to 5, surpassing Mbappe, who has 4 assists.
If Lionel Messi scores two goals in today’s match, his tally will rise to 10 goals, equaling Mbappe in terms of goals and assists (4 each).
In that case, the player who played fewer minutes will be considered. We find that Mbappe played 769 minutes, according to FIFA, while Messi has played 712 minutes so far. Therefore, the latter needs not to exceed 57 minutes played in today’s match in order to have an advantage over the Frenchman, although it is difficult to replace him early in that way.
