{"id":12225,"date":"2026-07-01T22:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/?p=12225"},"modified":"2026-07-01T22:01:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T16:31:13","slug":"fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The clash for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot is heating up as the tournament enters the knockout stage. Some of football&#8217;s biggest names are still chasing the game&#8217;s most wanted individual scoring prize, and for football-mad audiences in Sri Lanka following the tournament through the night, the race has turn out to be just as gripping as the results table itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Argentina captain Lionel Messi and France forward Kylian Mbappe sit level at six goals apiece. Norway&#8217;s Erling Haaland and Brazil&#8217;s Vinicius Junior are not far behind and remain firmly in the hunt. With every knockout match now carrying extra weight, the race for top scorer looks set to run all the way to the final.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"692\" height=\"296\" src=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fifa-tb.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-12226\" srcset=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fifa-tb.jpg 692w, https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fifa-tb-300x128.jpg 300w, https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fifa-tb-18x8.jpg 18w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 692px) 100vw, 692px\" \/><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The clash for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot is heating up as the tournament enters the knockout stage. Some of football&#8217;s biggest names are still chasing the game&#8217;s most wanted individual scoring prize, and for football-mad audiences in Sri Lanka following the tournament through the night, the race has turn out to be&#8230;<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12227,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,68],"tags":[2358,3206,73,134],"class_list":["post-12225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-international-football","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-golden-boot","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race - SL Sports<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"si_LK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race - SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The clash for the FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot is heating up as the tournament enters the knockout stage. Some of football&#8217;s biggest names are still chasing the game&#8217;s most wanted individual scoring prize, and for football-mad audiences in Sri Lanka following the tournament through the night, the race has turn out to be...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/si\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SL Sports\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lknewsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T16:31:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-07-01T16:31:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fbt-2026-07-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"675\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SlSports5\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Slsports Viraj\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Slsports Viraj\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#\/schema\/person\/6e3ead9806ed4f2b4ddfc9faa69328a5\"},\"headline\":\"FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-01T16:31:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-07-01T16:31:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\"},\"wordCount\":127,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/fbt-2026-07-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"FIFA World Cup 2026\",\"Golden Boot\",\"slsports\",\"sports news\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Football\",\"International Football\"],\"inLanguage\":\"si\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/slsports.lk\/fifa-world-cup-2026-golden-boot-race\/\",\"name\":\"FIFA World Cup 2026 Golden Boot Race - 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