NEW YORK (AP) – Lionel Messi has quite a climb to catch Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 for the Golden Boot.<\/p>\n
The Argentina superstar has won just about everything in soccer except for the award for being the leading scorer at the World Cup, and he\u2019s now two behind Mbapp\u00e9 after the France striker upped his total to 10 goals in a wild third-place game.<\/p>\n
Even if Messi can\u2019t get there, a record-extending third Golden Ball as the tournament\u2019s best player seems well in reach after Sunday\u2019s World Cup final against Spain in East Rutherford, New Jersey.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s already the only player to win the award multiple times since it was first given in 1978, and sparking Argentina\u2019s run to a second straight final at age 39 gives him a strong case for another.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is the history. He is the legend,\u201d Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said.<\/p>\n
The other awards to be presented Sunday for performances at the World Cup are the Golden Glove for the top goalkeeper, and the Best Young Player Award, given to the top player 21 years old or younger.<\/p>\n
Spain is in good shape to win at least one if not both of those, with Unai Sim\u00f3n allowing only one goal in seven games and 19-year-old Lamine Yamal providing the dazzle up front and showing why he is already considered one of the most promising players in the world.<\/p>\n
Messi is at the other end of a career in which he\u2019s won the Ballon d\u2019Or, given to soccer\u2019s player of the year, a record eight times.<\/p>\n
The Golden Boot has eluded him, but he had the lead going into the final two matches of this year\u2019s tournament. Both Messi and Mbapp\u00e9 had eight goals through the semifinals, but Messi owned the tiebreaker with one more assist.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 then scored twice Saturday in France\u2019s 6-4 loss to England, making him the first player with 10 goals in a World Cup since Germany great Gerd M\u00fcller had 10 in 1970.<\/p>\n
Mbapp\u00e9 also won the Golden Boot four years ago in Qatar, when France lost to Argentina in the final. This time, he could join players such as Italy\u2019s Salvatore Schillaci in 1990, Croatia\u2019s Davor Suker in 1998 and Germany\u2019s Thomas M\u00fcller in 2010 as players whose goals in a third-place game carried them to the Golden Boot.<\/p>\n
Should Messi beat out Mbapp\u00e9 in an Argentina victory, he would be the first Golden Boot winner to play for the champion since Ronaldo scored eight goals when Brazil won the title in 2002.<\/p>\n
He may not need any goals to secure another Golden Ball.<\/p>\n
Messi won that trophy for the first time in 2014, when Argentina was the runner-up, and again in 2022 when his seven goals in seven games powered his country to its third title.<\/p>\n
The Golden Ball, Golden Glove and the Best Young Player Award are voted on by members of the media from a list of players compiled by the FIFA Technical Study Group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK (AP) – Lionel Messi has quite a climb to catch Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 for the Golden Boot. The Argentina superstar has won just about everything in soccer except for the award for being the leading scorer at the World Cup, and he\u2019s now two behind Mbapp\u00e9 after the France striker upped his total to … Continue reading Messi has work to catch Mbapp\u00e9 for the Golden Boot. A 3rd Golden Ball is in reach in World Cup final<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1452],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1525808","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":true,"date":"2026-07-21 07:03:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[0],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525808","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1525808"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525808\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1525809,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1525808\/revisions\/1525809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1525808"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1525808"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1525808"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}