World Cup 2026 Analysis

48 teams, 104 matches, 308 goals. Code on GitHub.

I cleaned the player and match data with pandas, put it in a SQLite database I designed, and answered a few questions with SQL. The match scores were all checked against Wikipedia, and so was every goalscorer. Six goals in the source were credited to the wrong player, which I fixed.

What I found

Mbappé won the Golden Boot with 10 goals, ahead of Messi (8), Bellingham (7) and Haaland (7).
Per 90 minutes, Dembélé (1.49) and Haaland (1.40) scored more often than Mbappé (1.27).
Without a minimum minutes filter, Kaan Ayhan is top with 45 goals per 90: one goal in 2 minutes. That's why the per-90 numbers only count players with 180+ minutes.
Group matches averaged 2.99 goals, knockout matches 2.68 (leaving out the 4–6 third place match).
Spain won it conceding 1 goal in 8 matches. England and France scored the most (20 each) but both went out in the semi-finals.

Charts

Bar chart of the top 10 scorers, led by Mbappé with 10 goals

Bar chart of goals per 90 minutes for players with at least 180 minutes

Bar chart of average goals per match in each round

Scatter plot of goals scored and conceded per match for all 48 teams

All players

Everyone who got on the pitch. Click a column to sort.

180+ minutes only

Player	Team	Pos	Matches	Minutes	Goals	Assists	Goals/90