The Golden Boot Race Has Already Gotten Ridiculous

Thanks to the luck of the draw and the blessing of the soccer gods, Monday was the second matchday of this World Cup in which all three of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland took the field in back-to-back-to-back matches. Thanks to sheer superhuman talent on display from the trio, Monday was also the second matchday of this World Cup in which all three of Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé, and Erling Haaland scored at least two goals each.

If the World Cup is a global celebration of soccer, then the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot race is a localized celebration of superstardom, a triple showdown that could even blossom into a four-way melee (Harry Kane plays his second game on Tuesday after scoring a brace of his own in his first against Croatia) heading into the final group stage round. Just when one guy has seemed to pull ahead, the other two have caught up immediately after, and only one goal separates the current leader from his two much younger challengers.

That current leader is, of course, Messi. After picking up two more goals on Monday against Austria, he has scored all five of Argentina's goals at this World Cup. Noted Messi worshipper Billy Haisley already covered the D10S's feats, so I will instead just highlight Messi's touch to control the ball ahead of Monday's second goal, and then move on. But seriously, what a touch:

Following Messi is a tough job for anyone, but Kylian Mbappé has already gone head-to-head with him and, though France lost that incredible 2022 final, Mbappé's hat trick pushed him one goal past the Argentine to win that tournament's Golden Boot. Small consolation, I'm sure, but the point is that if anyone can keep up with whatever divine intervention has allowed Messi to remain this good as he turns 39, it is Mbappé. Unfortunately for Iraq, on a very wet and thundering night in Philadelphia, it was Mbappé indeed.

In the 14th minute, the Frenchman, on 14 goals in his World Cup career, received the ball at the top right of the box. For a righty like Mbappé, a shot from here would have been a tricky task, but goalscoring cares not for the concept of "weak foot," so Mbappé took a touch to his left and fired off a line drive that hit Iraqi goalie Ahmed Basil's hand on the way in:

Iraq did itself no favors by gifting France, and Mbappé, the second. In the 54th, a free-kick pass across goal from Zaid Tahseen just went past Basil and right to Ousmane Dembélé who, selflessly I might add, passed the ball across to give Mbappé the tap-in. It was his 16th World Cup goal, equalizing Miroslav Klose for second all-time, after Messi:

(Dembélé was rewarded for his selflessness in the 66th minute, scoring his first international tournament goal for France.)

Thanks to a weather delay that felt interminable but was actually two hours and 11 minutes long, Mbappé next took the field at around 8 p.m. ET, which was roughly the same time that Norway-Senegal kicked off about 97 miles to the north in New York/New Jersey. Where France-Iraq featured a highly motivated goalscorer playing against an overmatched side, Norway's Erling Haaland was supposed to have a harder time scoring against the Lions of Teranga. Senegal is a good side, and last Tuesday they kept up with France for about 80 minutes before eventually falling 3-1.

Senegal once again started like the stronger team, but went down 1-0 to early substitute Marcus Holmgren Pedersen's goal in the 43rd minute. On the other side of halftime, Haaland took over: First, he provided a blistering counter-attack run for Martin Odegaard, and the Arsenal midfielder fed his fearsome teammate with a perfect ball for Norway's second:

The second Haaland goal wasn't quite as clean and vicious as the first, but after a bunch of bounces inside the box—Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly did not cover himself in glory here—Haaland finished a tricky finish in the air off the crossbar and in, only five minutes after Senegal had scored:

So, to recap, after two matches each, Messi has five goals, while Mbappé and Haaland are right behind with four. There's still time for another contender to join this highly entertaining fracas. As mentioned, Kane is sitting on two goals of his own in just one match. Canada's Jonathan David and Germany's Deniz Undav both have three after two matches, and there's always the chance that Cristiano Ronaldo gets his shit together. OK, maybe not that last one, but it's also possible that someone pops up out of relative nowhere to climb into the race with a big group-finale performance. For now, though, it's fitting that this gigantic, sometimes overstuffed World Cup has become a showcase for the biggest names and talents in the sport.

The scary thing is that none of that triumvirate have been truly at their very best yet, and they haven't had to be. Messi preyed on poor Luca Zidane's errors in the first game for two of his goals; Mbappé received that gift from Iraq; Haaland has capitalized on not one but two defensive errors, and should have scored on a third on Monday night, but hit the post on a wide-open goal, proving even terrifying Norwegian soccer cyborgs make mistakes.

It's a shame that the France-Norway Group I decider is not a do-or-die match for either team—both are through to the knockouts, so this one is all about group positioning, an important but less urgent consideration—and therefore won't serve as a proper Mbappé-Haaland showdown. Still, the knockouts should set the stage for even more shenanigans from three players carrying the weight of their countries' respective attacks on their shoulders. My only hope is that all three go far in the tournament, because at the pace they are going, the winner might just have to break the all-time single World Cup goals record (Just Fontaine with 13 in 1958) to claim the Golden Boot.