Men's FIFA World Cup top goalscorers From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A total of over 2,700 goals have been scored in matches across the 22 final tournaments of the men's FIFA World Cup, not counting penalties scored during shoot-outs.[1] Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent in 1930,[2] nearly 1,300 footballers have scored goals at the World Cup tournaments,[3] of whom 101 have scored five or more.
The top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentina's Guillermo Stábile, with eight goals. Since then, only 25 players have scored more World Cup goals in total than Stábile did during the 1930 tournament. The first to do so was Hungary's Sándor Kocsis, scoring eleven in 1954. At the following tournament, France's Just Fontaine improved on this record, recording thirteen goals in just six matches. Gerd Müller then scored ten goals for West Germany in 1970, before breaking the overall record when he scored his fourteenth World Cup goal during West Germany's win in the 1974 final. Müller's record stood for more than three decades, until Ronaldo recorded fifteen goals between 1998 and 2006 for Brazil. The record is currently held by Germany's Miroslav Klose, who went on to score a record sixteen goals across the four consecutive tournaments he played between 2002 and 2014.
Of all the players who have played at the World Cup, only six have achieved an average of two goals or more per match played: Kocsis, Fontaine, Stábile, Russia's Oleg Salenko, Switzerland's Josef Hügi, and Poland's Ernst Wilimowski — the latter of whom scored four in his only ever World Cup match, played in 1938.[5] The top 101 goalscorers have represented 30 nations, with 14 players scoring for Brazil, and another 14 for Germany or West Germany. In total, 67 footballers came from UEFA (Europe), 30 from CONMEBOL (South America), and only four from elsewhere: Cameroon and Ghana from CAF (Africa), Australia from AFC (Asia) (formerly from OFC of Oceania), and the United States from CONCACAF (North/Central America).
Fontaine's thirteen goals in 1958 remains the record for the most scored in a single World Cup tournament. The players that came closest to this tally were Kocsis in 1954 (eleven goals), Müller in 1970 (ten goals), and Portugal's Eusébio in 1966 (nine goals). The top scorers with the fewest goals were from the 1962 tournament, when six players finished joint-top with just four goals each. Across the 22 tournaments of the World Cup, 31 footballers have been credited as the tournament top scorer, and no one has achieved this feat twice. Ten of these players scored at least seven goals in a tournament, while Brazil's Jairzinho in 1970 and Argentina's Lionel Messi in 2022 were the only footballers to record at least seven goals but still not finish as the tournament's top scorer. These 31 top goalscorers played for 20 different nations, with the most (five) coming from Brazil. Another five came from other South American countries, with the remaining 21 coming from Europe.
In 2006, Ronaldo became the first player to score eight goals in knockout matches (excluding the third place play-off) at the World Cup, coming in his three tournaments for Brazil, a feat which would be equalled in 2022 by France's Kylian Mbappé.[6] Mbappé himself became the first player to score four goals in World Cup final matches: he netted one in the 2018 final followed by a hat-trick in the 2022 final. England's Geoff Hurst is the only other player to record a hat-trick in a World Cup final, doing so in 1966.
Ronaldo ranks second among players with the most goals at the World Cup, scoring fifteen, including two in the 2002 final.Among players still active at international level, Lionel Messi has the most goals at FIFA World Cups, with thirteen goals to his name, including two in the 2022 final.Gary Lineker is the top scorer for England at the World Cup, with ten goals.Grzegorz Lato (left) became the top scorer for Poland at FIFA World Cups during the 1974 tournament, with ten total goals.Teófilo Cubillas is the top scorer for Peru at the World Cup, with ten goals.Cristiano Ronaldo is the only male player to score in five different World Cup tournaments.With six goals for Ghana, Asamoah Gyan is the only player outside of Europe or South America to score more than five goals at the World Cup.
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Table key
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Denotes national top scorers (or joint top scorers) at the World Cup
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Denotes players still active at international level
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Denotes tournaments where the player was part of the squad, but did not play in a match
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Denotes tournaments where the player played in a match, but did not score a goal
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Denotes tournaments where the player's team won the World Cup
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Players with at least 5 goals at FIFA World Cup tournaments[5][7][8]
Leônidas scored a record eight World Cup goals for Brazil, coming at the 1934 and 1938 tournaments.Ademir scored a record nine World Cup goals for Brazil, all coming at the 1950 tournament.Sándor Kocsis was the first player to score ten or more goals in a single World Cup: he scored a record eleven goals in just five matches for Hungary during the 1954 tournament.Just Fontaine scored a record thirteen World Cup goals for France, all coming at the 1958 tournament.
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Goal set a new record
Goal equalled the existing record
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Progressive list of footballers that have held the record for most goals scored at the FIFA World Cup final tournaments
Guillermo Stábile scored a then-record eight goals for Argentina at the 1930 World Cup.Eusébio scored nine goals for Portugal at the 1966 World Cup.Gerd Müller scored ten goals for West Germany at the 1970 World Cup.
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Top goalscorers at each FIFA World Cup final tournament[126][127][128]
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player to have scored in five different World Cups. Four other players (Uwe Seeler, Pelé, Miroslav Klose and Lionel Messi) have each scored in four tournaments, while another 35 have each scored in three.
In the table below players are listed in order of achieving their tallies.
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Players who scored at 3 or more separate World Cups
Outside this list is Ernst Wilimowski of Poland, the player with the highest goals-to-games ratio in the World Cup. His ratio is 4.00 as he scored four goals in his only World Cup appearance, in 1938.[9]
There was a controversy regarding the number of goals scored by Ademir in 1950 because of incomplete data from the final group round game against Spain, that ended in a 6–1 victory for Brazil. The first Brazilian goal was credited as own goal and the fifth was credited to Jair,[26] but both are now credited to Ademir.[27]
FIFA initially credited Leônidas with eight goals in the 1938 tournament, but in November 2006, FIFA revised it to seven (he scored one additional goal in the 1934 tournament).[39]
FIFA initially credited Nejedlý with only four goals in 1934. However, FIFA changed it to five goals in November 2006, meaning he scored a total of seven goals overall (he scored two goals in 1938).[39]
"More goals than caps". FIFA. 3 June 2009. Archived from the original on 8 April 2018. Retrieved 18 August 2018. The Golden Shoe may have eluded Ernest Wilimowski, but he does boast the best goals-to-games ratio in World Cup history at 400 per cent. Indeed, in his solitary appearance – an unforgettable match at France 1938 – he scored four of Poland's goals in a 6-5 defeat by Brazil in the first round.
Glanville, Brian (16 August 2005). "Obituary — Jair da Rosa Pinto". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 4 December 2022. Retrieved 5 September 2014.
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Portugal
West Germany
Brazil
Argentina
Poland
Scotland
France
Italy
Spain
Saudi Arabia
Sweden
Brazil
England
South Korea
Mexico
Netherlands
Australia
United States
Ghana
Uruguay
Japan
Switzerland
Croatia
Brazil
Italy
