The five favourites to win the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot | OneFootball

Winning a World Cup Golden Boot etches a player into the history books and the world’s greatest goalscorers will all have their sights set on the prize this summer.

Here are the five favourites to win the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot.

2026 World Cup Top Scorer: Favourites for the Golden Boot

Lionel Messi – Argentina (16/1)

Lionel Messi will lead Argentina’s defence of the trophy this summer, in what will be an unprecedented sixth World Cup.

Messi inspired Argentina to their 2022 triumph in Qatar, becoming the first footballer in history to win multiple Golden Balls as the World Cup’s outstanding player.

Messi scored seven times during the tournament, but missed out on the Golden Boot to Kylian Mbappe (8). It’s one of the few individual awards that has eluded him in a record-breaking career.

Erling Haaland – Norway (15/1)

Erling Haaland will feature at a World Cup for the first time as part of a Norway team returning to this stage for the first time since 1998.

Haaland is, arguably, the best goalscorer in the game right now and led UEFA’s qualification for goals, with 16 in just eight games. That was more than double the next-highest scorer and, no, that isn’t a typo.

Mikel Oyarzabal – Spain (14/1)

Mikel Oyarzabal looks likely to lead the line for Spain this summer, in the absence of an out-and-out number nine.

Oyarzabal has scored an impressive 24 goals in 52 caps for the European champions, including six in qualification. The 29-year-old has scored 18 goals in all competitions across each of the last two campaigns at Real Sociedad.

Harry Kane – England (15/2)

Harry Kane is one of three players at this summer’s tournament, alongside Mbappe and James Rodriguez, aiming to make new history. No player has ever won multiple Golden Boots at a World Cup, though Kane is seeking a second after his 2018 success.

The England captain could hardly be entering the tournament in better form, having scored 61 goals in 51 games for Bayern Munich in 2025/26.

Kylian Mbappe – France (6/1)

Kylian Mbappe already has a case as one of the World Cup’s greatest-ever players. Only five players have ever scored more World Cup goals than Mbappe, who won the 2018 tournament as a teenager and scored in the final.

Four years later, his eight goals earned Mbappe the Golden Boot, a return which included a hat-trick in France’s final defeat to Argentina. He’s the favourite for the Golden Boot for good reason.

Read – England release squad numbers for the 2026 FIFA World Cup

See more – World Cup 2026: Every squad list in full ahead of tournament

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