MLS Top Scorers 2026: The Golden Boot Race

Ranking of top scorers in the 2026 MLS season with goals, assists, minutes played and goals per 90 stats. Cover both conferences. Mirrors the successful EFL Championship top scorers format which has the site's highest CTR. Keep updated weekly through the season for freshness.

The 2026 MLS Golden Boot race is already producing some of the best individual scoring numbers the league has seen at this stage of a season. Six matchdays in, Sam Surridge and Petar Musa lead the division, and neither looks like slowing down. Here is the full picture after the opening weeks.

The leading goal scorers in MLS this season

The leading goal scorers in MLS this season are Sam Surridge and Petar Musa, who are joint top with 7 goals each after six matchdays. 

Surridge won MLS Player of the Month for February and March, scoring all seven in four appearances. His seven goals through Nashville's opening five games are tied for the second-most in MLS history at that stage, behind only Landon Donovan's eight in 2008.

Musa has matched him by different means. The Croatian scored two goals in Dallas's opening-day win over Toronto, then delivered the first hat-trick of the 2026 season in a 3-3 draw with San Diego FC on Matchday 4, completing it with a 95th-minute equaliser. A goal in Dallas's 4-0 win over DC United on Matchday 6 took him level. It is the best start of his MLS career.

The leading goal scorers so far

The goals leader in assists is Son Heung-min of LAFC, who has 7 MLS assists across six matches. Son has a single regular-season goal to his name, but his creative output has been central to LAFC's unbeaten start.

Goals per 90 minutes: who is the most efficient?

Surridge's 7 goals have come in 381 minutes, which works out at approximately 1.65 per 90. That is the most clinical rate among players with significant minutes at this stage of the season. 

Musa's 7 goals across roughly 450 minutes gives him a rate of around 1.40 per 90. Both numbers are exceptional. Only a handful of players in MLS history have sustained rates above 1.00 for a full season.

The highest goals per 90 rankings 

How the Golden Boot race has developed so far

Surridge came into the season having scored 24 goals in 2025, a career best that placed him level with Bouanga and five behind Messi.

Musa finished 2025 with 19 goals in what was his most productive campaign since arriving from Benfica. Both began 2026 motivated by the World Cup. Surridge is hopeful of forcing his way into an England squad. Musa has openly discussed representing Croatia this summer and knows that goals in MLS are his most direct route back into the national setup.

Elsewhere, Messi sits sixth with 4 goals. He won the Golden Boot last season and is chasing back-to-back wins and a record-breaking third award. LAFC's Denis Bouanga, the 2023 Golden Boot winner, scored a hat-trick against Orlando City on Matchday 6 and moved to 4 goals. He is the most dangerous challenger over the course of a full season given the service he receives from Son.

The record to beat is Carlos Vela's 34 goals in 2019, set with LAFC. The average Golden Boot winner in recent seasons has reached around 23 goals. On current trajectory Surridge and Musa are both capable of challenging that benchmark, but 28 matchdays remain, and both will miss weeks in June and July during the World Cup.

A Golden Boot race worth following all season

This is shaping up to be one of the best in years. Two elite strikers leading the way, Messi chasing history and Bouanga primed to charge. Download now and follow every goal.