The 2026 World Cup tournament, the largest ever, in terms of team participation and the first to be hosted in three countries, is in full swing, and the first round, featuring 48 teams, comes to an end tomorrow, Saturday, with four games being played in Miami, Atlanta, New York/New Jersey, and Philadelphia.

The expected heroes have donned their capes and are shooting for, arguably, the most coveted individual award in the tournament — the Golden Boot, which is earned by the player who scores the most goals in the competition. The chase is currently a searing three-way race between Lionel Messi (Argentina), Kylian Mbappé (France), and Erling Haaland (Norway), but it’s still early days. Messi, the current joint JustBet favourite alongside Mbappé, leads the tournament with five goals, while Mbappé and Haaland follow closely behind with four goals each. Of course, it could be argued that the Golden Ball is the most coveted individual award in the FIFA World Cup, handed to the tournament’s voted best player, but no one ever remembers who gets that, except for Messi, who is the only player to have won it twice — 2014 and 2022.

Argentina’s forward #10 Lionel Messi heads the ball in a training session during the 2026 World Cup football tournament at Sporting KC Training Centre in Kansas City on June 24, 2026. (Photo: AFP)

That said, inarguably the third-most coveted award is the Golden Glove, presented to the tournament’s most outstanding goalkeeper, previously known as the Lev Yashin Award, in honour of the standout Russian custodian, prior to 2010. Yashin, nicknamed “the Black Spider” or “the Black Panther” for dressing in full black from head to toe for his first World Cup appearance (1958), was the first and only goalkeeper to win the Ballon d’Or. He reportedly revolutionised the position and saved over 150 penalty kicks in professional football and kept over 270 clean sheets in his career.

The inaugural winner of the renamed award was Spain’s Iker Casillas, after he kept five clean sheets on the way to winning the World Cup with his country in 2010, and the last World Cup tournament in Qatar saw Argentina’s Emiliano Martínez walk away with the trophy. He played a pivotal role in Argentina’s victorious World Cup campaign with three clean sheets, several vital penalty shoot-out saves, and a critical one-on-one stop against Randal Kolo Muani of France in the last minute of extra time, which sent the final to penalties.

Martinez could be in the hunt to retain the title should he manage similar heroics in this tournaments and depending on how deep a run ‘La Albiceleste’ can make, but there are plenty of equally talented and influential shot-stoppers participating. Martinez and Spain’s Unai Simón are JustBet favourites to win the award, but England’s Jordan Pickford, Brazil’s Alisson, and Portugal’s Diogo Costa are expected to be in the reckoning. There is also the presence of the 2014 Golden Glove winner in Germany’s 40-year-old Manuel Neuer, who was surprisingly recalled into the squad for one last campaign.

However, in the bright lights of the “Greatest Show on Earth”, a number of astounding performances have come from lesser-known goalies in the first round that would have made even Yashin pay attention. Firstly, Cape Verde’s goalkeeper Josimar José Évora Dias, widely known as Vozinha (which translates to “Little Granny”), put on a shot-stopping masterclass in a historic 0-0 draw with Spain on June 15. The 40-year-old veteran earned Man of the Match honours after facing 27 shots and making seven crucial saves (six of which were fired from inside the 18-yard box) against a highly favoured Spanish team, earning Cape Verde their first-ever World Cup point.

France’s forward #10 Kylian Mbappe celebrates with fans after winning the 2026 World Cup Group I football match between France and Iraq at the Philadelphia Stadium in Philadelphia on June 22, 2026.(Photo: AFP)

Following the match, Dias’ Instagram following skyrocketed from around 56,000 to over 15 million in just a few days, after denying the efforts of stars such as Lamine Yamal, Rodri and Fabián Ruiz. The custodian was also impressive last Sunday in a 2-2 draw against Uruguay, no small feat for a small Atlantic nation of roughly 530,000 people, both a first-time World Cup participant and a heavy underdog.

Secondly, Curacao’s goalkeeper Eloy Room was impregnable in a 0-0 draw against Ecuador in Kansas City last Saturday. The 37-year-old shot-stopper set a historic World Cup record by making 15 saves in 90 minutes, thereby securing the island nation’s first-ever World Cup point. The record for the most saves in a single World Cup game is held by the United States’ Tim Howard, who made 16 saves in a 1-2 round-of-16 loss to Belgium in 2014, which included overtime. Room, who was born in the Netherlands and plays his club football for Miami FC in the USL Championship, is the joint most-capped player in Curaçao’s national team history, along with Leandro Bacuna, left it all on the field and fell to the turf after the final whistle, his tears seemingly washing away the memory of the 1-7 thrashing by Germany in their first game, and heralding their place in history as the smallest nation to ever compete on this grand stage.

Last, and by no means least, is Lionel Mpasi Nzau, the primary goalkeeper for the Democratic Republic of Congo, who plays his club football for Le Havre in France’s Ligue 1, who provided some late-night magic on Tuesday against Colombia, in Guadalajara, Mexico. Mpasi was impressive, making a string of remarkable saves that appeared to be enough to earn the Africans an unlikely point, but Colombia’s unrelenting pressure ultimately paid off, as a Daniel Muñoz shot was deflected in the 76th minute, beating the 31-year-old net-keeper at his near post, to give Colombia their second win and secure their passage to the last 32.

Under the night shadow of Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, the Patrice Lumumba lookalike, widely known as “Lumumba Vea”, the encounter ended on a disappointing note for the Congolese hopefuls. However, the spirit displayed by Mpasi during the proliferation of Colombian attempts, was a fitting tribute to the country’s assassinated independence leader, and Mboladinga, dressed in his sharp suit and posing motionless with his arm raised throughout the game, imitating the exact posture of Lumumba’s famous memorial statue located in the capital city of Kinshasa, will inspire the team in their encounter tomorrow against Uzbekistan, with a win basically securing a spot in the round of 32.

These three custodians are not likely to win the Golden Glove, but their performances have been worthy of praise, and prove that dreams, no matter how big, can be achieved, despite size, lack of support, or background. Truly great underdog stories, exactly what makes this the biggest single-sport tournament on the planet.

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