World football’s governing body FIFA opened this week the vote to select the best goal of the 2026 World Cup, and two Argentine players have been included among the nominees. 

The tournament, which ended last Sunday as Spain defeated Argentina 1-0 in extra time to claim its second title in history, ended with a tally of 308 goals, a rate of almost three per match. 

The tournament easily topped the record of most goals scored in a World Cup, in large part due to its expanded 48-team format. It also beat Qatar 2022’s 2.68 average goals per game, finishing with 2.96 per match — still well below Switzerland 1954’s record of 5.38 goals.

FIFA narrowed the list down to the 12 best strikes, which are now in the running for the Goal of the Tournament award. Fans have until July 27 to cast their vote.

Argentine star and captain Lionel Messi scored one of the goals in contention, his opener in the national team’s debut match against Algeria. 

After receiving a through ball from Rodrigo De Paul, the Rosario-born star opened up a gap for a shot and put it in the top left corner from outside the box.

The strike was the first in what would turn out to be Messi’s historic hat trick, his first in a World Cup.

The other Argentine nominated is Julián Álvarez, who broke the deadlock in the 112th minute of extra time in Argentina’s hard-fought duel with Switzerland. 

The former River Plate wonderkid picked up the ball at the edge of the box and put an unstoppable shot into the goalkeeper’s top-right corner. His effort is a strong contender for the win, having already picked up the award for best goal in the quarterfinals.

Other contenders include Kylian Mbappé for his long-range effort against Senegal in the group stage, Jude Bellingham for his darting run against France in the third-place game and Sidny Lopes Cabral for his swerving shot against Argentina in the round of 32.

If either Messi or Alvarez wins, they’ll be joining Newell’s Old Boys legend Maximiliano Rodríguez, who won the inaugural World Cup Goal of the Tournament award in 2006 for his outside-the-box volley against Mexico in the quarterfinals.

While the award didn’t exist at the time, it’d be fair to say Diego Maradona won the Mexico 1986 Goal of the Tournament award for his second strike against England in the quarterfinals. The world-famous play — where he took the ball in midfield, slipped past five defenders and the goalkeeper and scored inside the six-yard box — was voted Goal of the Century in 2002.