Who are the players who have scored the most goals in World Cup history? And who has scored the most goals in one edition of the tournament? The World Cup’s all-time top scorers list.
Minimum three games, maximum seven. It’s not easy for a player to excel at a World Cup, especially for a goalscorer: there aren’t many games to score and be decisive.
However, there are players who have written the history of the tournament by scoring an impressive number of goals in the final round one or more times. There are even strikers who have managed to reach double digits in one edition.
The player with the most goals in the World Cup
Miroslav Klose is the all-time top goalscorer at the World Cup. The German, 2014 world champion and former Lazio player, has scored 16 times in 24 World Cup appearances.
Klose appeared in four editions of the World Cup and finished his career with an average of 0.67 goals per game. The former striker made 5 in the 2002 World Cup, 5 in the 2006 edition, 4 in the 2010 edition and finally in the 2014 edition.
Who has scored the most goals in one specific World Cup edition?
Just Fontaine’s record is hard to beat. During the 1958 World Cup, the French striker managed to find the net 13 times.
An extraordinary average of 2.17 goals per game, tallied in just 6 games. The peculiarity? He failed to win the World Cup. That was conquered by Pelé’s Brazil.
Fontaine’s France finished third. The Stade Reims striker scored no less than four goals in the consolation final and finished in double figures after the hat-trick against Paraguay, a double against Yugoslavia and Northern Ireland and a few hits against Brazil and Scotland.
Who is the World Cup top scorer among active players?
Thomas Müller could equal Miro Klose by scoring six goals in Qatar during the World Cup. The Bayern Munich attacker has already scored 10 times in 16 appearances. Müller reached ten goals with five goals in the 2010 and 2014 editions. In 2018, he went three games without scoring.
Behind Müller are Luis Suárez, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo with 7 goals, while Harry Kane and Neymar trail behind with 6 hits.
The all-time World Cup top scorers list
Miroslav Klose (Germany), 16 goals
Ronaldo (Brazil), 15 goals
Gerd Müller (Germany), 14 goals
Just Fontaine (France), 13 goals
Pelé (Brazil), 12 goals
Sandor Kocsis (Hungary), 11 goals
Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany), 11 goals
Helmuth Rahn (Germany), 10 goals
Thomas Müller (Germany), 10 goals
Gary Lineker (England), 10 goals
Gabriel Omar Batistuta (Argentina), 10 goals
Teofilo Cubillas (Peru), 10 goals
Grzegorz Lato (Poland), 10 goals