{"id":139728,"date":"2026-07-19T18:05:33","date_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:05:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/messi-has-work-to-catch-mbappe-for-the-golden-boot-a-3rd-golden-ball-is-in-reach-in-world-cup-fin\/"},"modified":"2026-07-19T18:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-20T00:08:27","slug":"messi-has-work-to-catch-mbappe-for-the-golden-boot-a-3rd-golden-ball-is-in-reach-in-world-cup-fin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/messi-has-work-to-catch-mbappe-for-the-golden-boot-a-3rd-golden-ball-is-in-reach-in-world-cup-fin\/","title":{"rendered":"Mbapp\u00e9 wins another Golden Boot, and Spain’s Rodri gets Golden Ball with World Cup title"},"content":{"rendered":"

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9<\/a> kept the Golden Boot award and Spain wouldn’t let Lionel Messi get anything else.<\/p>\n

Shortly after winning the World Cup title<\/a> Sunday, the Spaniards claimed all three individual player awards, keeping Messi from leaving with any more personal hardware.<\/p>\n

Rodri won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best player, Unai Sim\u00f3n won the Golden Glove for the top performance by a goalkeeper, and Pau Cubars\u00ed won the Best Young Player Award, beating out fellow 19-year-old teammate Lamine Yamal.<\/p>\n

Messi was hoping to win a record-extending third Golden Ball, adding to his 2014 and 2022 honors. He\u2019s already the only player to win the award multiple times since it was first given in 1978, and sparking Argentina\u2019s run to a second straight final at age 39 gave him a strong case for another.<\/p>\n

But the award went to Rodri for captaining Spain’s run to its second World Cup title after the Manchester City midfielder struggled early after returning in May 2025 from knee surgery that sidelined him eight months.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, it\u2019s been a very tough time. I just want the new generation to see my example as an opportunity to that if you go down, you can rise again,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is my philosophy my entire life. Of course, sometimes things go well, things go wrong. But always the positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodri had no goals or assists in the tournament, but he was critical to Spain\u2019s possession-heavy style of play. He completed more passes than anyone (753) with 94% accuracy. He was involved in 1,803 plays, according to FIFA stats, nearly 200 more than anyone else in this World Cup.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard that at the beginning of the tournament I wasn\u2019t able to play, now that I recovered my shape. I tried not to listen too much,\u201d Rodri said on the eve of the final. \u201cI\u2019ve always been confident of myself. I think one of the big parts of my game is trying to replicate this accuracy in terms of passing and being very safe with the ball.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rodri became just the 11th man to win the World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d\u2019Or \u2014 the biggest individual award in soccer, awarded for soccer’s player of the year, which he won in 2024 when Spain won the European title.<\/p>\n

FIFA says the Golden Ball was awarded to the best player in the tournament based on a ranking compiled by the FIFA Technical Study Group. Messi won the Silver Ball and Mbapp\u00e9 the Bronze Ball.<\/p>\n

Sim\u00f3n set a record with his seven shutouts in the tournament, allowing just one goal in eight games. Cubars\u00ed, the Barcelona defender, helped anchor Spain’s record-setting defensive effort and had the most completed passes in the final.<\/p>\n

Cubars\u00ed and Yamal became the first teenagers to start for the winning team in the World Cup final since Mbapp\u00e9 was also 19 when France won the 2018 title. He won that young player award that year.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 totaled 10 goals and four assists this time for a France team that finished fourth. Messi ended up with eight goals and four assists after going without a goal or an assist Sunday for the first time in his last 12 World Cup games.<\/p>\n

The Golden Boot is one of the few things Messi has never won in his storied career, but he went into the final weekend with the lead. Both Messi and Mbapp\u00e9 had eight goals through the semifinals, but Messi owned the tiebreaker with one more assist.<\/p>\n

Mbapp\u00e9 then scored two goals and had an assist Saturday in France\u2019s 6-4 loss to England<\/a> in the third-place game, making him the first player with 10 goals in a World Cup since Germany great Gerd M\u00fcller had 10 in 1970. Mbapp\u00e9 has 22 career World Cup goals, one better than Messi for the tournament record.<\/p>\n

Messi only had one attempt Sunday that momentarily appeared dangerous, a bending left-footed shot in the 115th minute that landed on top of the net. He came into the game with a chance to become the first Golden Boot winner to play for the champion since Ronaldo scored eight goals when Brazil won the title in 2002.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

See more of AP\u2019s World Cup coverage here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) \u2014 Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 kept the Golden Boot award and Spain wouldn’t let Lionel Messi get anything else. Shortly after winning the World Cup title Sunday, the Spaniards claimed all three individual player awards, keeping Messi from leaving with any more personal hardware. Rodri won the Golden Ball as the tournament’s best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5734],"tags":[],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-139728","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-associated-press"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139728"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":139828,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139728\/revisions\/139828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139728"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=139728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}