{"id":22724,"date":"2026-07-03T15:41:00","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/messi-returns-to-the-field-and-golden-boot-race-at-the-world-cup-continues\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T15:41:00","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T15:41:00","slug":"messi-returns-to-the-field-and-golden-boot-race-at-the-world-cup-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/messi-returns-to-the-field-and-golden-boot-race-at-the-world-cup-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi returns to the field and Golden Boot race at the World Cup continues"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Lionel Messi resumes his chase of the Golden Boot on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Argentina&rsquo;s captain &mdash; widely considered the greatest player ever &mdash; returns to the World Cup pitch when the defending champions take on Cape Verde in the round of 32. Messi has six goals in this World Cup, tied with France&rsquo;s Kylian Mbapp&eacute; for the tournament lead.<\/p>\n<p>The Golden Boot is presented to the top goal-scorer.<\/p>\n<p>Messi and Mbapp&eacute; are far from being the only contenders: Norway&rsquo;s Erling Haaland and England&rsquo;s Harry Kane each have five goals entering Friday, while four more players &mdash; France&rsquo;s Ousmane Dembele, Spain&rsquo;s Mikel Oyarzabal, Brazil&rsquo;s Vinicius Junior and Senegal&rsquo;s Ismaila Sarr have four. Sarr is out of the running since Senegal has been eliminated.<\/p>\n<p>Norway, England and France have all clinched spots in the round of 16; Argentina and Messi need a win over Cape Verde to join them in that round.<\/p>\n<p>Messi has been on an absolute goal-scoring tear, with at least one goal in his last seven World Cup matches going back to 2022 &mdash; something no men&rsquo;s player has ever accomplished in the tournament&rsquo;s history. He has 11 goals in those seven games, pushing his career total to 19. That&rsquo;s also the most in World Cup history, one ahead of Mbapp&eacute;.<\/p>\n<div class=\"internal-linking-related-contents\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/12-weeks-jail-for-school-it-support-technician-who-took-upskirt-videos-of-teachers\/\" class=\"template-1\"><span class=\"cta\">News :<\/span><span class=\"postTitle\">&lt;div&gt;12 weeks' jail for school IT support technician who took upskirt videos of teachers&lt;\/div&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/div><p>The Golden Boot is something Messi has never won. He finished second in that race with seven goals at the 2022 World Cup, one behind Mbapp&eacute;, and tied for third with four goals at the 2014 World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>If there&rsquo;s a tie atop the goal list when the tournament ends, FIFA will use assists as the first tiebreaker and fewest minutes played as the second tiebreaker. Entering Friday, that meant Mbapp&eacute; would have the edge over Messi based on his 2-0 lead in assists.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>\n                See more of AP&rsquo;s World Cup coverage here\n              <\/p>\n<p>Source<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><sub>Messi returns to the field and Golden Boot race at the World Cup continues<\/sub><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) &mdash; Lionel Messi resumes his chase of the Golden Boot on Friday. Argentina&rsquo;s captain &mdash; widely considered the greatest player ever &mdash; returns to the World Cup pitch when the defending champions take on Cape Verde in the round of 32. Messi has six goals in this World Cup, tied with&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-wrap\"><a href=\"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/messi-returns-to-the-field-and-golden-boot-race-at-the-world-cup-continues\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Messi returns to the field and Golden Boot race at the World Cup continues&rdquo;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22724\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jobuzo.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}