Sports

Highest Goal Scorers in FIFA World Cup History (At least six)

FIFA World Cup 2022, Earth’s biggest show has just finished. Finally, the world has another champion (Argentina) for the next four years. Lionel Messi, The goat, achieved his first Fifa World Cup.

Since the tournament’s beginning in 1930, many top strikers have showcased their goal-scoring skills in FIFA World Cup.

Since then, more than 2,000 goals have been scored in 21 FIFA World Cups, with over 1,200 goal scorers including legends like Pele, Ronaldo Nazario, Miroslav Klose, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Lionel Messi.

The first goal scorer in world cup history was French player Lucien Laurent.

Miroslav Klose scored the most goals in the FIFA World Cup. He played 24 matches in four tournaments and scored 16 goals, making him the top goalscorer in world cup history.

He scored his first three goals in his World Cup debut against Saudi Arabia in Germany’s opening group game at the 2002 World Cup. Then, in the 2014 World Cup semifinal between Germany and Brazil, he scored his final 16th which was the most historic goal for him and Germany.

Ronaldo, Brazil’s 2002 World Cup-winning star, was the top goal scorer before Klose. He had scored 15 goals in just 19 matches across three World Cups. He scored four goals in his debut world cup in 1998.

Gerd Muller of Germany scored 14 goals in two tournaments. In the 1970 FIFA World Cup, the German legend became only the second player in history to score back-to-back hat-tricks.

Meanwhile, France’s Just Fontaine owns the record for a top goal scorer in a single World Cup edition, with 13 goals in just six matches. He was also the tournament’s first player to score back-to-back hat tricks.

Pele is fifth all-time in the World Cup goalscorers list with 12 and is the second highest-placed Brazilian after Ronaldo. He scored 12 goals in 14 matches in world cup history.

Among active players, Lionel Messi is the top goalscorer in the FIFA World Cup, scoring 13 goals. Also, french’s player Kylian Mbappé scored 12 goals in 14 matches.

Here is the list of top goal scorers in FIFA world cup history.

Rank	Player	Team(s)	Matches	Goals	Penalty
1	Miroslav Klose	Germany	24	16	0
2	Ronaldo	Brazil	19	15	1
3	Gerd Müller	Germany	13	14	1
4	Just Fontaine	France	6	13	0
	Lionel Messi *	Argentina	26	13	4
6	Kylian Mbappé *	France	14	12	2
	Pelé	Brazil	14	12	0
8	Jürgen Klinsmann	Germany	17	11	0
	Sándor Kocsis	Hungary	5	11	0
10	Gabriel Batistuta	Argentina	12	10	4
	Teófilo Cubillas	Peru	13	10	2
	Grzegorz Lato	Poland	20	10	0
	Gary Lineker	England	12	10	2
	Thomas Müller *	Germany	19	10	1
	Helmut Rahn	Germany	10	10	0
16	Ademir	Brazil	6	9	0
	Roberto Baggio	Italy	16	9	2
	David Villa	Spain	12	9	2
	Eusébio	Portugal	6	9	4
	Jairzinho	Brazil	16	9	0
	Paolo Rossi	Italy	14	9	0
	Karl-Heinz Rummenigge	Germany	19	9	0
	Uwe Seeler	Germany	21	9	0
	Vavá	Brazil	10	9	0
	Christian Vieri	Italy	9	9	0
26	Cristiano Ronaldo *	Portugal	22	8	3
	Harry Kane *	England	11	8	4
	Léônidas	Brazil	5	8	0
	Diego Maradona	Argentina	21	8	0
	Oscar Míguez	Uruguay	7	8	0
	Neymar *	Brazil	13	8	2
	Rivaldo	Brazil	14	8	1
	Guillermo Stábile	Argentina	4	8	0
	Rudi Völler	Germany	15	8	0
35	Careca	Brazil	9	7	1
	Oldřich Nejedlý	CSSR	6	7	1
	Johnny Rep	Netherlands	14	7	0
	Hans Schäfer	Germany	15	7	0
	Luis Suárez *	Uruguay	16	7	0
	Andrzej Szarmach	Poland	13	7	0
	Lajos Tichý	Hungary	8	7	0
42	Bebeto	Brazil	15	6	0
	Dennis Bergkamp	Netherlands	12	6	0
	Zbigniew Boniek	Poland	16	6	0
	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	10	6	1
	Asamoah Gyan	Ghana	11	6	2
	Helmut Haller	Germany	9	6	1
	Thierry Henry	France	17	6	0
	Josef Hügi	Switzerland	3	6	0
	Mario Kempes	Argentina	18	6	0
* Active player