FIFA World Cup 2026: Goals in Third-Place Play-off to Count Towards Golden Boot

Kathmandu. Goals scored by players in the third-place play-off match for the World Cup will also be counted towards their total goals and the race for the Golden Boot. This means that in the 2026 competition currently underway in the United States of America, Canada, and Mexico, players like Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Harry Kane, and Jude Bellingham still have a chance to win the Golden Boot even if France and England are eliminated from the semi-finals. With the final two matches of the competition remaining, these four players are among the seven players who have scored five or more goals so far. England and France will face each other on Saturday for the third place, and the final match between Spain and Argentina will be played the following day, Sunday. According to the current goal count, Mbappé of France and Lionel Messi of Argentina are jointly at the top with eight goals each. However, Messi is technically ahead in the race for the Golden Boot because his assists (number of passes provided for goals) are one more than Mbappé's. Erling Haaland of Norway is third in the list with seven goals, but since his country was eliminated in the quarter-finals, he will not be able to add to his goal tally. Two England players, Jude Bellingham and Harry Kane, have six goals each, while France winger Ousmane Dembélé and Spain striker Mikel Oyarzabal have scored five goals each. How England and France field their teams in Saturday's third-place match will play a significant role in determining the winner of the Golden Boot. In the 2018 World Cup, England's then-coach Gareth Southgate made five changes to the semi-final team when playing against Belgium for the same position. In that match, then-Golden Boot winner Harry Kane played the initial part but did not score. In the history of the World Cup, seven Golden Boot winners have scored in the third-place play-off match so far. Of these, the goal in that match was decisive for four players to win the award. Thomas Müller of Germany (2010), Davor Šuker of Croatia (1998), Salvatore Schillaci of Italy (1990), and Leonidas of Brazil (193774) won the Golden Boot with the help of goals scored in the third-place match. Similarly, Grzegorz Lato of Poland (1974), the great Portuguese player Eusébio (1966), and Just Fontaine of France (1958) also won the award by scoring in the third-place match in the same year. However, they were certain to win the Golden Boot even if they had not scored in that match.