World Cup Top Scorers: Complete List of Leading Goalscorers in FIFA History
Scoring at a World Cup. It is the dream of every young football fan, every up and coming talent, and every experienced campaigner competing on football’s biggest stage - scoring for your nation in a tournament steeped in history is rarely beaten by anything else in the game.
But for some, achieving this once is not enough: some hit new heights on the grandest stage of them all, others steadily add to their collection over time, but they all have something in common - they make World Cup goals a habit rather than a premium event.
In other words, some of the greatest to ever lace up a pair of boots have shown exactly why they fit in that bracket when the World Cup comes around. While their cohorts and opponents are happy to find the back of the net even once, these special exceptions to the rule are not happy until they have acquired a veritable treasure trove of World Cup goals.
So, with this in mind, Football Park dives into World Cup goalscoring records - who has the most of all time, who bagged the most in a single tournament, and who is currently on track to threaten these records.
As of June 2025, the top 20 World Cup goalscorers of all time are as follows:
Miroslav Klose (16) - Germany, 2002-2014
Miroslav Klose's record 16 World Cup goals ⚽pic.twitter.com/jVtUvK4Jpb
— Bayern & Die Mannschaft (@iMiaSanMia_en) November 4, 2022
Ronaldo Nazario (15) - Brazil, 1994-2006
Gerd Muller (14) - West Germany, 1970-1974
Lionel Messi (13) - Argentina, 2006-Present
No player had ever won FIVE man of the match awards at a single World Cup before Lionel Messi did it in 2022.
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 18, 2024
He also became the first player to EVER score in the group stage, round of 16, quarterfinal, semifinal, and final in a SINGLE World Cup.
He did it all at 35 🤯🐐 pic.twitter.com/J1Cb21CY6u
Just Fontaine (13) - France, 1958
Pele (12) - Brazil, 1958-1970
Kylian Mbappe (12) - France, 2018-Present
Sandor Kocsis (11) - Hungary, 1954
Jurgen Klinsmann (11) - West Germany/Germany, 1990-1998
#OnThisDay 1994
— Football Remind ⚽️ (@FootballRemind) June 27, 2024
Germany beat South Korea in their final group game at the World Cup.
Jürgen Klinsmann scored twice which included this brilliant finish
A master at work! ⚽️👏
🎥 via @SportsTjspic.twitter.com/9IbzAJXR1T
Helmut Rahn (10) - West Germany, 1954-1958
Gary Lineker (10) - England, 1986-1990
Gabriel Batistuta (10) - Argentina, 1994-2002
Teofilo Cubillas (10) - Peru, 1970-1982
Thomas Muller (10) - Germany, 2010-2022
Thomas Müller at the World Cup :
— Elwin (@papielwino) June 28, 2025
- 16 Games
- 10 Goals
- 6 Assists
- WC Winner (won it as the main-man)
- WC Golden Boot
- WC Young POTT
- 1x WC Top Assister
- WC Silver Ball
- Got the Most G/A at b2b WCs in 2010 & 2014
- WC Silver Boot
Total domination. Football legend. 👑 pic.twitter.com/g1SvVMTizD
Grzegorz Lato (10) - Poland, 1974-1982
Ademir (9) - Brazil, 1950
Eusebio (9) - Portugal, 1966
Eusebio vs North Korea (1966 World Cup QF)
— Retro Productions (@RetroProds) March 13, 2021
3-0 down in 25 minutes, Eusebio rose to the occasion in a historic comeback, where he was involved in every goal. Scoring 4 and getting a pre-assist on the 5th goal pic.twitter.com/UhOFoaXTRv
David Villa (9) - Spain, 2006-2014
Christian Vieri (9) - Italy, 1998-2002
Vava (9) - Brazil, 1958-1962
Five other players also sit on nine goals, but as this is a top 20 list, some players, such as Jairzinho, Karl-Heinze Rummenigge and Paulo Rossi had to miss out.
Now, we’ve had a look at the overall goal scorers list - now it is time to see which players had the best individual tournaments of all time.
1930 Uruguay World Cup - Top scorer: Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) - 8 Goals.
1934 Italy World Cup - Top Scorer: Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia) - 5 Goals.
1938 France World Cup - Top Scorer: Leonides (Brazil) - 7 Goals.
1950 Brazil World Cup - Top Scorer: Ademir (Brazil) - 9 Goals.
BRAZIL 🇧🇷
— FootballRetroPlus (@robertmdaws) April 14, 2024
World Cup 1950
Brazil 7 vs Sweden 1
Ademir scores on 17 minutes to make it 1-0 to the Brazilians pic.twitter.com/R3OhQVQylg
1954 Switzerland World Cup - Top Scorer: Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) - 11 Goals.
1958 Sweden World Cup - Top Scorer: Just Fontaine (France) - 13 Goals
1962 Chile World Cup - Top Scorers: Vava and Garrincha (Brazil), Leonel Sanchez (Chile), Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia) - 4 Goals.
1966 England World Cup - Top Scorer: Eusebio (Portugal) - 9 Goals.
The Three Lions' hat-trick hero in the 1966 Final 🏴
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 8, 2019
Happy birthday to the one and only @TheGeoffHurst 🎂 #WorldCup | @England pic.twitter.com/KQrvFrbGiu
1970 Mexico World Cup - Top Scorer: Gerd Muller (Germany) - 10 Goals
1974 Germany World Cup - Top Scorer: Grzegorz Lato (Poland) - 7 Goals.
1978 Argentina World Cup - Top Scorer: Mario Kempes (Argentina) - 6 Goals.
1982 Spain World Cup - Top Scorer: Paulo Rossi (Italy) - 6 Goals.
1986 Mexico World Cup - Top Scorer: Gary Lineker (England) - 6 Goals.
On This Day 1986
— TV Football 1968-92 (@1968Tv) June 22, 2025
From the ‘Hand Of God’ to one of the greatest goals of all time.
Diego Maradona’s single handed destruction of England.
Commentator Barry Davies#Maradona #HandOfGod pic.twitter.com/JOvcmRSCS7
1990 Italy World Cup - Top Scorer: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) - 6 Goals.
1994 USA World Cup - Top Scorers: Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) and Oleg Salenko (Russia) - 6 Goals.
1998 France World Cup - Top Scorer: Davor Suker (Croatia) - 6 Goals.
2002 South Korea/Japan World Cup - Top Scorer: Ronaldo Nazario (Brazil) - 8 Goals.
10.8 seconds! 😱⚡️#OTD in 2002, Hakan Sukur scored the fastest goal in #FIFAWorldCup history! 🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/1thH26qWTw
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 18, 2024
2006 Germany World Cup - Top Scorer: Miroslav Klose (Germany) - 5 Goals.
2010 South Africa World Cup - Top Scorers: Thomas Muller (Germany), David Villa (Spain), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands) - 5 Goals.
2014 Brazil World Cup - Top Scorer: James Rodriguez (Colombia) - 6 Goals.
2018 Russia World Cup - Top Scorer: Harry Kane (England) - 6 Goals
2022 Qatar World Cup - Top Scorer: Kylian Mbappe (France) - 8 Goals.
Kylian Mbappe vs Argentina, 2022. pic.twitter.com/EIsMn59c7C
— Curiosidades Europa (@CuriosidadesEU) July 1, 2025
France’s Just Fontaine sits comfortably above the rest, with his 13 goals at the 1958 World Cup a record that is unlikely to ever be beaten. Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis sits second in this category, with 11, while Gerd Muller rounds out the top three with 10.
In terms of teams, Hungary’s squad of 1954 sit head and shoulders above the rest, netting 27 times as they lost in the final. Fontaine’s France side of 1958 comes second with 23, while the World Cup winning Brazil side of 1950 scored 22 times.
⚽️ 27 goals in one World Cup 🤯
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 4, 2020
⚽️ An average of 5.4 per match 🤯
🇭🇺 Hungary tore up the #WorldCup record books in 1954 with their groundbreaking style and dazzling attack of Hidegkuti, Kocsis & Puskas 🤩 pic.twitter.com/0NJ9ytgmFh
All but one of these totals came after 1958 (Gerd Muller’s 10) - it seems that both individual and team scoring records are becoming harder to surpass in the modern game.
Of course, overall quality has improved - back in the day France, Hungary and Brazil were routinely scoring seven, eight, or nine goals against lesser opposition, grossly inflating their goal output. At the last world cup, only one game ended with a margin of more than four goals, and very few exceeded three - teams are much more closely matched today.
There is also an increased importance bestowed upon sticking to tactics. In the 50’s, formations and systems were much more basic, and largely gave a license to roam to attacking players. Now, World Cup stars are asked to stay in position more and more.
This is fine if you are a centre forward - staying in position means scoring more goals - but it limits the amount of creativity that can be provided from the wings and in midfield.
Similarly, countries’ approach the game differently. Many nations now play the game using a patient, pass-heavy build up approach, preferring gradual progress over tiring end-to-end action. While this may help sides control the game better, keeping their opponents where they want them, it also removes an element of randomness, the feeling that a goal can be scored at any time.
However, despite the huge shift the game has undergone in recent decades, there are a number of active players still threatening to break some long-standing records.
In particular, Miroslav Klose’s record as all-time top scorer at the World Cup appears to hang in the balance - France’s Kylian Mbappe has already netted 12 times across two World Cups, and still aged just 26, he may have three more World Cups still to play in order to break, and then extend, the record.
Happy Birthday to FIFA World Cup top-scorer, Miroslav Klose ⚽️🌍🔝
— LiveScore (@livescore) June 9, 2025
Will he ever be caught? 👀 pic.twitter.com/ao2JGe1R5P
Similarly, Lionel Messi sits on 13 goals. Aged 38, next year's World Cup hosted in the USA, will likely be his last, but he sits just three goals behind Klose. After scoring seven in 2022, he brought himself a lot closer to the milestone, and while he has lost a step of pace and is not playing at Europe’s highest level anymore, beware of doubting him at your own peril.
Though much further back, sitting on eight goals, Harry Kane cannot be counted out either. Averaging a goal per game since his move to Bayern Munich two years ago, Kane could not have had a better two years of preparation for the upcoming tournament. Capable of scoring a hat trick against anyone on his day, another Golden Boot could see him go extremely close to the record.
Messi could also equal another record - he has already scored in four different World Cup tournaments, and needs just one goal at the next iteration to equal the record set by his old nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo, who has scored in all five he has appeared in, spanning from 2006 to 2022.
Individual Records
⚽️🎯Most goal contributions in World Cup history:
— Sholy Nation Sports (@Sholynationsp) July 31, 2024
🇦🇷 Lionel Messi — 21 G/A
🇧🇷 Pele — 20 G/A
🇩🇪 Miroslav Klose — 19 G/A
🇧🇷 Ronaldo — 19 G/A
GREATNESS! 🐐🔥 pic.twitter.com/KORp6lWTOQ
Team Records
🇧🇷🏆 On this day in 2002, Brazil won their fifth #FIFAWorldCup! pic.twitter.com/lv9S06mnUh
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) June 30, 2025
Goals Per Game for each World Cup
Betting is naturally linked with the World Cup - nothing better than having a beer in the sun while sticking a fiver on a bet builder with your football supporting mates. Of course, prior to the tournament, betting odds can be affected by the performance of players in their domestic leagues.
Top goalscorer, best player and young players, and even the outright winner of the World Cup itself depend on who is in the squad itself, and who is in the best form coming into the tournament.
And then of course are the markets that shift and alter as the tournament goes on. Top goalscorer markets are changing constantly depending on the form of players throughout the group stage, and can also change with other factors that can affect how a team plays, such as injuries and suspensions.
There are also special markets for goalscorers - gamblers can place stakes on the top scorer in each group, top scorer from a particular country, and even from a particular continent, with the odds obviously fluctuating depending on form throughout the early stages of the tournament.
Player Performance Prop Bets are also impacted - a prop bet, which can range from “X player to score next match” to “X player to score 2+ goals” are impacted by form and impact in the team. Bookies shift the odds of these bets depending on form and the popularity of the markets.
In summary, it is clear from our research that record scorers across the World Cups illustrious past have gone down in history. Some are perceived to be underrated, such as Just Fontaine, who only ever made it to one World Cup.
Others though have written their names into the annals of footballing folklore - Pele, Messi, Ronaldo Nazario and Gerd Muller are widely regarded as some of the greatest players of all time, and no shortage of that has stemmed from outrageous performances in the biggest tournament in the World.
To score at a World Cup is thrilling - to score double figures across a World Cup career … well it is something that those in the 0.01% of professionals can achieve. The rest of them, as well as us fans, can only dream.
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