World Cup 2026 Stat Leaders: Goals, Assists, XG, Chances Created & More

After 104 matches across the United States, Mexico and Canada, the curtain has finally come down on a memorable 2026 World Cup.

Sunday’s showpiece at the New York New Jersey Stadium saw Spain crowned champions for the second time, after edging past Argentina 1-0 in extra time.

Ferran Torres’ 106th-minute strike proved decisive in a game that La Roja dominated, helped in part by Enzo Fernández’s red card late in the second half.

In truth, it was a cagey encounter in East Rutherford – but the same certainly couldn’t be said of Saturday’s bronze final between England and France.

The tournament’s beaten semi-finalists produced a thriller for the ages, as Bukayo Saka’s hat-trick helped the Three Lions to a remarkable 6-4 victory.

With goals aplenty from both sides, that match-up ensured there has been plenty of change when it comes to the tournament’s various stat leaders.

So we’ve rounded up who sits top of the pile for a host of attacking metrics, now the World Cup has reached its conclusion…

World Cup Top Goalscorers: Mbappé claims Golden Boot after brace in Miami

Kylian Mbappé may have been on the losing side against England, but his two goals at Miami Stadium ensured he won the 2026 World Cup Golden Boot.

The 27-year-old took his total to ten for the tournament, which was enough to top the scoring charts after Lionel Messi (8) blanked in yesterday’s final.

It means Mbappé becomes the first player to win the Golden Boot twice after also doing so at Qatar 2022 – and that he is now the competition’s all-time top scorer with 22 World Cup strikes, one more than Messi.

Norway’s Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham ranked just behind the Argentine attacker on seven goals apiece, with England’s No.10 scoring the last of those in stoppage time against France.

Ousmane Dembélé did likewise – netting two minutes before Bellingham – to reach six goals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, which is the same total as Harry Kane.

Mikel Oyarzabal is just behind on five, meanwhile, after braces against Saudi Arabia and Austria, and a crucial penalty versus France in the semi-final.

World Cup 2026 Top Goalscorers

World Cup Most Assists: Olise stars as Les Bleus’ creator-in-chief

Michael Olise set up two of France’s goals in the bronze match against England, putting him some way ahead of every other player on the assist front.

The Bayern Munich star registered an impressive total of seven assists across eight matches – breaking Pelé’s single edition record of six from 1970 in the process.

Notably, that was three more than the five players in joint-second with four apiece.

Messi is one of those runners-up after his pair of assists in the semi-final, while Bruno Guimarães (Brazil) and Martin Ødegaard (Norway) deserve credit for reaching that tally in only five games each.

Mbappé also assisted four times, taking his total goal contributions at the World Cup to a truly remarkable 14.

And Brahim Díaz registered the same number, too, as Morocco put in the best performance of any African team to reach the quarter-finals.

Elsewhere, Norway’s Andreas Schjelderup is worthy of an honorable mention. He delivered three assists (and a goal) despite featuring for just 251 minutes.

World Cup 2026 Most Assists

World Cup Highest XG: Mbappé outperforms expectations

It is testament to Mbappé’s remarkable finishing ability that he netted ten goals in the United States, Mexico and Canada, despite posting an xG of just 5.65.

That was still the highest expected goals total at the tournament, though, ahead of Messi (4.77) and Haaland (4.29) who scored eight and seven times, respectively.

But while there are no surprises at the top of the rankings, Senegal’s Ismaïla Sarr sits just behind with an xG of 3.98 – almost identical to his tally of four goals, which came in only 366 minutes of football.

Newly-crowned champion Oyarzabal is next on the list (3.6), ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo who slightly underperformed an xG of 3.49 with three strikes for Portugal.

The England pair of Kane (3.28) and Bellingham (3.2) complete the set of players with over three expected goals.

They were particularly clinical all tournament, scoring a combined 13 times – 6.52 more than their total xG.

World Cup 2026 Highest XG

World Cup Most Shots: A familiar duo at the summit

Mbappé and Messi were the undoubted attacking stars of this World Cup, so it stands to reason that the duo delivered a high shot count throughout the competition.

France’s talisman (41) attempted six more efforts at goal than his Argentine counterpart (35) and they also placed first and second for shots on target with 23 and 18, respectively.

Lamine Yamal is another player who has looked to test opposition goalkeepers across his eight appearances and sits third as a result, with a total of 27 shots.

Team-mate Oyarzabal and England’s Kane are narrowly behind on 23 attempts each, with both of them also matching Yamal for shots on target (12).

Four further players amassed 20 shots – Kevin De Bruyne (Belgium), Haaland, Dembélé and Olise.

Of those, De Bruyne did so in the fewest minutes (387), while Haaland placed the most on target (13).

World Cup 2026 Most Shots

World Cup Most Chances Created: Messi pulls the strings for Argentina

Argentina’s run to the World Cup final was centred around Messi’s magic, as he repeatedly pulled the strings for Lionel Scaloni’s outfit.

No player could come close to the veteran forward’s 25 chances created while stateside, with eight of those registering as Opta-defined big chances – again, a competition-leading figure.

There were plenty of other creative stars at the tournament, though, not least the French trio of Olise, Mbappé and Dembélé, who each conjured 18 opportunities for Didier Deschamps’ team.

Olise was the most effective of the three, recording seven big chances – more than Dembélé’s five and Mbappé’s two.

Meanwhile, Leandro Trossard (Belgium), Declan Rice (England) and Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) were narrowly behind Les Bleus’ top performers with 17 chances created.

And Mohamed Salah can look back on his World Cup with a degree of satisfaction, after generating 16 opportunities for his Egyptian team-mates in five games and just 428 minutes.

World Cup 2026 Most Chances Created