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Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe are currently locked on the same number of goals as the World Cup reaches its closing stages.

The competition for the World Cup Golden Boot has been among the most thrilling in recent history.

Just as seen in 2022, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have been leading the scoring charts since the early matches, though the likes of Erling Haaland, Harry Kane, Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Junior have also been in contention at different points during the tournament.

Messi and Mbappe are presently level on goals, and although Mbappe’s team was eliminated by Spain, he still has the chance to add to his tally in the third-place play-off, as goals scored in that match do count towards the final total.

With both players standing on eight goals in the tournament across Canada, Mexico and the United States, a key question arises — who would claim the prestigious Golden Boot if they remain tied when the competition concludes?

This scenario feels quite familiar, recalling the 2022 edition in Qatar, when both players were tied on five goals going into the final.

In that instance, Mbappe’s hat-trick in the final saw him edge past his then Paris Saint-Germain teammate Messi to finish with eight goals, one more than the Argentine. However, before Mbappe converted his penalty in the 118th minute, both were level, meaning the award could have been determined differently if the situation had persisted.

According to FIFA’s rules, the first tiebreaker in determining the Golden Boot winner is the number of assists provided by each player. A Technical Study Group reviews the matches to confirm which passes qualify as assists and then makes the final decision based on those findings.

At present, Mbappe would make history as the first player to win two Golden Boots, as he has recorded three assists compared to Messi’s two.

If both players remain tied on assists, FIFA’s next criterion is minutes played. The player with fewer minutes on the pitch would receive the award, recognising a superior goals-and-assists-per-minute ratio.

The Golden Boot has been shared only twice in World Cup history. The first instance came in 1962 in Chile, when six players — Florian Albert, Valentin Ivanov, Garrincha, Vava, Drazan Jerkovic and Leonel Sánchez — each scored four goals. At that time, the award was not yet called the ‘Golden Boot’, and they were simply recognised as joint top scorers.

The second occasion occurred in 1994, the previous time the tournament was held in the United States, when Oleg Salenko and Hristo Stoichkov both finished with six goals.

In 2010, Thomas Muller received the Golden Boot after scoring five goals in South Africa. He was level with David Villa, Wesley Sneijder and Diego Forlan, but won the title thanks to his three assists, while the others had only one each.