Continuous goals at World Cup 2026

GUADALAJARA, Mexico -- At the 2026 World Cup, the number of goals has reached a record level. The tournament was one of the highest scoring in history, having scored almost 25% more goals than at the same stage in the previous World Cup. One reason for the increase in goals could be the ball that FIFA uses for this tournament. FIFA said the ball was designed with deep stitching to create "optimum stability in flight", and players and coaches commented that the ball flew quickly towards the goal. Besides, the ball also has better grip to support shooting and dribbling in wet conditions. "This ball is as fast as a bullet. I think today and in previous days, if you shoot the ball in the right position, it will be very difficult for the goalkeeper to save," said Austria coach Ralf Rangnick. Playing times are also longer due to the extra extra time associated with the new refreshments introduced for this competition, allowing for more scoring opportunities. Furthermore, this tournament has a larger talent gap due to the expansion of the 48 participating teams. Colombia coach Néstor Lorenzo said he was not surprised by the number of goals considering the talent of his players at the World Cup. He also said that strikers are now more protected by referees than in the past. "They weren't protected like this 20, 30 years ago, when they were touched more often, when rough play was more common," he said on Monday. "Today, any team that defends well and uses counter-attacking can do well." The result: fans witnessed 121 goals in the first 40 matches of the tournament, and many of them came from internationally famous players. More than half of the goals scored so far in the tournament have come from players from the top three professional leagues in England, Germany and Spain. The English Premier League leads in goals scored. This trend was evident in last weekend's match between the Netherlands and Sweden, with the Dutch team winning 5-1. All six goals were scored by players who played in the Premier League during the 2025-26 season. "I think the Premier League has more intensity than this World Cup," said Gabriel Martinelli, a Brazilian player from Arsenal. "But certainly this is still a very beautiful World Cup, with high quality and high intensity matches." Real Madrid, Inter Miami of the American Major League Soccer and Liverpool are the clubs with the most scorers. Miami of course features one: Lionel Messi, who has scored five goals in two games. In addition to nearly 30 goals from English clubs, there were 16 goals from the Bundesliga, 11 goals from La Liga, seven goals from Ligue 1 and five goals from Serie A. MLS also saw players score eight times. Messi scored a hat-trick in Argentina's opening match and scored two more on Monday. Other goals came from Petar Musa of FC Dallas (Croatia), Matías Galarza of Atlanta United (Paraguay) and Finn Surman of Portland Timbers (New Zealand). When FIFA announced the official squads, there were 200 players playing in England, almost double the 109 players playing in Germany. The number of goals scored is based on the players' clubs when the official squad announcement is announced. Real Madrid players scored seven goals - four from France's Kylian Mbappé, two from Brazil's Vinícius Júnior and one from England's Jude Bellingham. Madrid did not have any players called up for the Spain team for the first time. However, they signed Marc Cucurella from Chelsea during the tournament, making one of them part of the World Cup with La Roja. Liverpool got three goals from Dutch players - two from Cody Gapko and one from Virgil van Dijk. Another goal came from Sweden's Alexander Isak and the other was scored by Egypt's Mohamed Salah, who was still listed as a Liverpool player when the squads were announced. Bayern Munich got four goals - two from England's Harry Kane and one from Germany's Jamal Musiala and one from Colombia's Luis Díaz. Bayern is the team with the second most players called up for the tournament with 18 players. Manchester City are top with 19 players, however only four of their goals at the World Cup so far have come from Norway's Erling Haaland. With 121 goals scored by 88 players in the first 40 matches of the tournament, an average of three goals per match. There were only three goalless draws and eight of the goals were due to own goals. The tournament is on track to break the record of 172 goals from Qatar in 2022. The records cannot be directly compared as the 2022 edition has only 64 matches compared to 104 this year. But the scoring rate for 64 matches this year reached nearly 194 goals, far exceeding the record from four years ago. The trend of scoring goals does not stop at the World Cup. The UEFA Champions League has set records in the past two seasons: 3.27 goals per match in the 2024-2025 season and 3.47 goals per match in the 2025-2026 season.

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