Kylian Mbappe has capped off a stellar World Cup by claiming his second Golden Boot award.
The French sensation finished with 10 goals for the tournament, two clear of Lionel Messi, who was unable to close the gap in Argentina’s 1-0 loss to Spain in a tense tournament final.
He is the first ever player to claim a second Golden Boot, having previously won the award at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Messi was well held by some miserly Spanish defending as Argentina remarkably finished with just three shots for the match – all of them coming deep into the second half of extra time.
Mbappe’s victory comes despite France’s loss to Spain in the semi-finals.
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It caps off a tournament in which the 27-year old overtook Messi to become the World Cup’s greatest ever goal-scorer with 22, just weeks after the 39-year old champion himself passed Miroslav Klose’s mark of 16.
Mbappe scored twice in France’s thrilling 4-6 loss to England in the bronze medal match, adding to goals against Morocco and Paraguay and braces against Senegal, Iraq and Sweden.
It left Messi needing to score twice in the final to match the Frenchman’s tally, while due to the award’s rules, he would have required one further assist to be the outright winner, with the pair tied with four apiece.
It calls into question the validity of the final tally with the third-place playoff featuring rotation players and not contested at the same intensity as other matches during the tournament.
Among the critics was former Team USA striker Taylor Twellman, who wrote on X that the bronze medal match was the equivalent of an “All Star Game”.
Seven Nation World Cup half time show | 01:31
The match hasn’t featured fewer than two goals since the 1974 World Cup, with the football world turning its back on the traditional event.
However, FIFA have resisted calls to scrap the fixture, as it prevents days without a single match between the semi-finals and final.
Similar to Mbappe, French striker Just Fontaine’s 1958 World Cup Golden Boot also featured plenty of help from the tournament’s most meaningless match.
Fontaine scored a World Cup record 13 goals at the event – but four came in a 6-3 bronze medal match win over West Germanty.
Speaking before the match, England coach Thomas Tuchel was scathing.
“None of our players and none of the French players want to play this match,” he said.
“They want to play the final. We gave everything to achieve that. Everyone plays to win the World Cup, but that’s how it is.”
Writing for The Independent, Kieran Jackson argued for the contest to be sent into the dustbin of history.
“If you like goalfests with no meaning, by all means tune in on Saturday night,” Jackson wrote before the match.
“The opportunity for inequitable stat-padding, too, is blindingly obvious.
“France striker Fontaine scored four goals in a 6-3 win over West Germany in the 1958 third-place play-off, which helped him set the all-time tournament record of 13 goals at a single World Cup.
“Kylian Mbappe, still in the hunt for the golden boot, has an excellent chance to add to his eight goals against a depleted, distraught England on Saturday. And it isn’t right.”
The warning proved prescient for Mbappe … not that it seems likely to change FIFA’s stance on its most despised match.Messi suffered a further blow after missing out on a third Golden Ball award for player of the tournament, with Spanish captain and 2024 Ballon d’Or winner Rodri claiming the gong.
2026 FIFA WORLD CUP GOLDEN BOOT LEADERBOARD
1. Kylian Mbappe (France) – 10 goals
2. Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 8 goals
3. Jude Bellingham (England) – 7 goals
4. Erling Haaland (Norway) – 7 goals
5. Ousmane Dembele (France) – 6 goals
6. Harry Kane (England) – 6 goals
7. Mikel Oyarzabal (Spain) – 5 goals
8. Ismaila Sarr (Senegal) – 4 goals
9. Julian Quinones (Mexico) – 4 goals
10. Vinicius Jr (Brazil) – 4 goals