As group-stage matches continue, Germany’s Kai Havertz, Sweden’s Yasin Ayari, and the U.S. Folarin Balogun are leading the adidas Golden Boot race at the FIFA World Cup 2026.
The 25-year-old Balogun, who strikes for Monaco in the French Ligue 1, scored a brace in the first half of one of the co-hosts’ 4-1 victory over Paraguay in their Group D opener on Saturday, at the Los Angeles Stadium. The brace made him the first USA player to score more than one goal for the Stars and Stripes in a World Cup match since 1930.
Havertz of Arsenal from the English Premier League, also scored a brace for Germany in their 7-1 pounding of debutants Curaçao in the Group E opener in Houston on Sunday. Yasin Ayari, who plays for Brighton in the EPL, also scored a brace in Sweden’s 5-1 demolition of Tunisia later in the day.
Several other players have registered one goal in their teams’ only group games.
They are Germany’s Deniz Undav (Stuttgart) with two assists; Sweden’s Alexander Isak (Liverpool) with two assists; Germany’s Nathaniel Brown (Eintracht Frankfurt) with one assist; Korea Republic’s Hwang Inbeom (Feyenoord); and Sweden’s Viktor Gyokeres (Arsenal) with one assist.
Others are Sweden’s Mikel Svanberg (Wolfsburg); USA’s Giovanni Reyna (Borussia Mönchengladbach) and Canada’s Cyle Larin (Real Mallorca), Korea Republic’s Oh Hyeon-gyu (Besiktas), Côte d’Ivoire’s Amad Diallo (Manchester United), Paraguay’s Mauricio (Palmeiras), Australia’s Nestory Irankunda (Watford), Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Jovo Lukic (Universitatea Cluj), Germany’s Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), and the Netherlands ‘ Crysencio Summerville (West Ham).
The scorers also include Germany’s Felix Nmecha (Borussia Dortmund), Mexico’s Raul Jimenez (Fulham), Mexico’s Julian Quinones (Al-Qadsiah), Scotland’s John McGinn (Aston Villa), Morocco’s Ismael Saibari (OSV Eindhoven), Japan’s Daichi Kamada (Crystal Palace), Japan’s Keito Nakamura (Stade Reims), Netherland’s Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool), Czechia’s Ladislav Krejci (Wolves), Australia’s Connor Metcalfe (St. Pauli), Tunisia’s Omar Rekik (Maribor), Curaçao’s Livano Comenencia (FC Zurich), Germany’s Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Switzerland’s Breel Embolo (Stade Rennes), and Spain’s Vinicius Jr (Real Madrid).
According to FIFA, the adidas Golden Boot will be awarded to the player with the most goals after the final match. However, if two or more players score the same highest number of goals, the player with the most assists will win, as determined by the members of the FIFA Technical Study Group.
But if those same players still have the same number of assists, the total minutes played in the tournament will be taken into account, with the player who played fewer minutes declared the winner.
