We’re less than two months away from the start of the 2026 World Cup. It promises to be a spectacular tournament, but who will be its top goalscorer?
We won’t be looking at one single betting company for this list – we’ll be analysing a range of odds and offers. We’ve sourced all our betting odds data for this piece using Oddschecker.
Also, please note that odds are, as always, subject to change. All data in this list is correct at the time of writing.
Lamine Yamal
Lamine Yamal is the best young player in the world at the moment. He is already a superstar, but he can truly etch his name into the annals of history at the 2026 World Cup.
The 18-year-old grows with each passing game. Having scored 16 goals and notched up 12 assists in La Liga for Barcelona this year, one would expect him to deliver at this summer’s tournament.
Nevertheless, Yamal remains only an outside favourite to be this year’s top goalscorer. Most bookies have him rated at around 14/1 or 12/1 – Betfair are offering odds as long as 20/1 as things stand.
Lionel Messi
Is Lionel Messi the greatest player of all time? Whatever your opinion might be, he still poses an almighty threat to any team at the World Cup – even at the age of 38.
With 13 goals at the World Cup to his name, only three players have scored more than he has at the tournament – those being Gerd Muller, Ronaldo and Miroslav Klose.
We’re expecting him to build on this tally, but can he win the Golden Boot? The bookies seem to think he’s capable of it, with Coral giving away odds as short as 10/1.
Erling Haaland
Norway have a few star players, but none of them can hold a candle to Erling Haaland’s monolithic presence on the football pitch. Arguably the best striker in the world, it’s highly likely that he’ll end up with a sizeable goals tally – even if Norway don’t make it very far in the tournament.
Haaland has scored 25 goals in the Premier League this season, alongside eight goals in the Champions League. Can he replicate his excellent form at the World Cup?
Most bookmakers have Haaland at 14/1 or 12/1 to finish as top goalscorer at the World Cup – the shortest odds available are with BetVictor, who have him at 10/1.
Harry Kane
Haaland might be the best striker in the world as things stand, but England’s Harry Kane can certainly give the Manchester City ace a serious run for his money.
England are likely to enjoy a deep run at the World Cup this year – as such, it stands to reason that Kane will have plenty of opportunities to work on his goals tally.
Most bookies have Kane at around 7/1 or 6/1 to be the World Cup’s top scorer, but some betting providers are offering odds as short as 5/1.
Kylian Mbappe
Forget Kylian Mbappe’s off-the-field struggles at Real Madrid – he’ll relish the opportunity to be let off his leash at the World Cup. You can certainly expect the Frenchman to dominate the scoring charts – at least, according to the bookmakers.
He is generally rated around 6/1 to be the top goalscorer at the World Cup. The bookies are expecting it to be close between him and Kane, but Mbappe generally has ever-so-slightly shorter odds than the Bayern Munich star.
The 2025/26 season has not been Mbappe’s best, as he is set for a rare trophyless season for Los Blancos – therefore, he’ll want to make up for lost time at the World Cup.