The most goals scored in a single World Cup tournament | OneFootball

The 2026 World Cup has seen the big names make a blistering start in the race for the tournament's Golden Boot.

Lionel Messi leads from the front with five goals, with Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Vinicius Junior all just behind.

Messi's five goals would have already been enough to win the Golden Boot in both 2006 and 2010, but with more games than ever before in an expanded 48-team tournament, could any of the in-form superstars set a new record?

It would take something truly special.

Just Fontaine holds the record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup tournament, having netted 13 times at the 1958 finals. Incredibly, only five players have ever scored more World Cup goals than the French forward, who played only six games at his sole tournament.

Fontaine opened the tournament with a hat-trick against Paraguay, and also scored four times asFrance beat West Germany 6-3 in the third-place play-off.

Fontaine's prolific tournament is one of only three occasions in which a player has scored 10+ goals in a single World Cup. The first to achieve the feat was Sandor Kocsis, who scored 11 goals in five games as Hungary reached the 1954 final.Gerd Muller later scored 10 goals for West Germany in 1970.

The highest-scoring tournaments this century are shared byRonaldo Nazario (2002) and Kylian Mbappe (2022), who each scored eight.

Mbappe is bidding to become the first player in history to win multiple World Cup Golden Boots this summer, and has scored four times in two games to date.

Who has scored the most goals in a single World Cup

1. Just Fontaine, France, 1958 (13)

2. Sandro Kocsis, Hungary, 1954 (11)

3. Gerd Muller, West Germany, 1970 (10)

3. Eusebio, Portugal, 1966 (9)

4. Ademir, Brazil, 1950 (9)

5. Ronaldo, Brazil, 2002 (8)

6. Kylian Mbappe, France, 2022 (8)