Since the 2002 World Cup until now, the top scorer of the tournament has only scored a maximum of 8 goals throughout the journey. That is Ronaldo de Lima (Brazil) in 2002 and Kylian Mbappe (France) 20 years later. But in the biggest arena of the journey taking place in 3 North American countries currently, Messi and Mbappe have scored 7 goals even though they do not need to enter the semi-finals or finals.
Notably, this is not only a two-horse race of the 2 world superstars mentioned above. The 2026 World Cup also witnesses many top strikers playing the main role. Harry Kane scored 5 goals when England had not played in the round of 16. The number is equivalent to Erling Haaland of Norway in the first time this center forward participated.
The candidates for the World Golden Ball a year ago, Ousmane Dembele and Vinicius Junior, are also not inferior. Both have also scored 4 goals for France and Brazil as of noon on July 5. Of course, if these teams continue to go deep at the 2026 World Cup, the opportunity for them to compete for the Golden Boot title is still very wide open.
Not creating an impressive and continuous scoring performance like the above faces, but Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) and Matheus Cunha (Brazil) are also enough to make fans remember them. Ronaldo ended his scoring streak in the knockout round with a goal contributing to bringing his team to the round of 16 against Spain. Meanwhile, in the context that Neymar has not yet reached his best physical condition to enter the field from the beginning, Cunha has been and is doing a good job as a "mastermind" at Selecao.
If this is the UEFA Champions League or domestic tournaments, the fact that a series of attacking superstars of world football race to score goals is "common as daily meals". However, the fact that they create competition together at the World Cup - the most harsh tournament on the planet is rare throughout history.
Remember, famous players like Marco van Basten, Luis Figo or Zlatan Ibrahimovic have never scored a single goal at the World Cup. Wayne Rooney has only scored one goal after 3 participations. Frank Lampard has scored more than 300 goals in his career, but has not even put his name on the scoreboard in 3 times accompanying England at this tournament. Saying that is enough to see the harshness that the World Cup has created, especially with famous stars.
Of course, for more than 2 decades, the World Cup has still witnessed superstars winning the overall Golden Boot title. Examples include Kylian Mbappe (2022 - 8 goals), Harry Kane (2018 - 6 goals), Miroslav Klose (2006 - 5 goals)... But most of them only compete with one or two opponents in their journey to the finish line. The strangest thing is that at the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa, 4 players including Thomas Mueller (Germany), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), David Villa (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay) were the top scorers with 5 goals each.
And at the present time, as the statistics above show, the names of world football are still "dancing" through each round. World Cup scoring records are piled up like... daily news bulletins. And not only Messi, Mbappe, Haaland, Ronaldo, Kane... create an attractive World Cup, even Lamine Yamal (Spain), Jude Bellingham (England), Mohamed Salah (Egypt), Luis Diaz (Colombia) or Michael Olise (France) also contribute significantly to the "party" of dedication in North America.
