FIFA World Cup top goalscorers
Over 2,300 goals have been scored at the 20 editions of the FIFA World Cup final tournaments, excluding penalties converted during shoot-outs.[1][2] Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the 1930 FIFA World Cup,[3] over 1,200 footballers have scored goals at the World Cup,[1] but only 90 of them have scored at least five goals.
Goals | >10 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Total | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
№ players | 7 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 6 | 23 | 32 | 57 | ≈100 | >200 | >700 | >1,200 |
The top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentina's Guillermo Stábile with eight goals. Since then, only 22 players have scored more goals at all the games played at the World Cup as Stábile did throughout the 1930 tournament. The first was Hungary's Sándor Kocsis with eleven goals scored in 1954. At the next tournament, France's Just Fontaine improved on this record with 13 goals in only six games. Gerd Müller scored 10 goals for West Germany in 1970, and broke the overall record when he scored his 14th goal at the World Cup during West Germany's win at the 1974 final. His record stood for more than three decades until Brazil's Ronaldo scored 15 goals between 1998 and 2006. Germany's Miroslav Klose went on to score a record 16 goals across four consecutive tournaments between 2002 and 2014. Only two other players have also scored more than 10 goals at the World Cup: Pelé with 12 between 1958 and 1970, and Jürgen Klinsmann with 11 between 1990 and 1998.
Of the 90 players who have scored at least five goals, only 5 of them have scored, on average, at least two goals per game played: Kocsis, Fontaine, Stábile, Oleg Salenko, and Josef Hügi — while Ernst Wilimowski scored four goals in his single World Cup game in 1938.[6] These top 90 goalscorers represented 30 different nations, with 13 players scoring for Brazil, and another 14 for Germany or West Germany. In total, 60 footballers are from UEFA (Europe), 26 from CONMEBOL (South America), and only 4 players from elsewhere: Cameroon, Ghana, Australia, and the United States.
Fontaine holds the record for the most goals scored at a single tournament, with 13 goals in 1958. The players that came closest to this record were Kocsis in 1954, Müller in 1970 and Portugal's Eusébio in 1966, with 11, 10 and 9 goals, respectively. The lowest scoring tournament's top goalscorer was in 1962, when six players scored only four goals each. A total of 29 different footballers have been credited with the most goals at a World Cup during the 20 editions, and no one has achieved this feat twice. Nine of them scored at least seven goals in a tournament, while Jairzinho became in 1970 the only footballer to score seven goals without being the top goalscorer that year. These 29 top goalscorers played for 19 different nations, the most (five) for Brazil. Of these 29, 19 came from Europe and 10 from South America. Except for three in 2010, all the top goalscorers won the Golden Boot.
Contents
Overall top goalscorers
- Tournaments in parentheses, e.g., (1982): played in the tournament, but did not score a goal
- Tournaments in square brackets: e.g., [1994]: part of the squad for the tournament, but did not play
- Players in bold↑: have continued playing for their national team after the 2014 tournament
Rank | Player | Team | Goals scored |
Matches played |
Goals per game |
Tournaments | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 16 | 24 | 0.67 | 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 | [7] |
2 | Ronaldo | Brazil | 15 | 19 | 0.79 | [1994], 1998, 2002, 2006 | [8] |
3 | Gerd Müller | West Germany | 14 | 13 | 1.08 | 1970, 1974 | [9] |
4 | Just Fontaine | France | 13 | 6 | 2.17 | 1958 | [10] |
5 | Pelé | Brazil | 12 | 14 | 0.86 | 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 | [11] |
6 | Sándor Kocsis | Hungary | 11 | 5 | 2.20 | 1954 | [12] |
Jürgen Klinsmann | Germany | 17 | 0.65 | 1990, 1994, 1998 | [13] | ||
8 | Helmut Rahn | West Germany | 10 | 10 | 1.00 | 1954, 1958 | [14] |
Gary Lineker | England | 12 | 0.83 | 1986, 1990 | [15] | ||
Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 12 | 0.83 | 1994, 1998, 2002 | [16] | ||
Teófilo Cubillas | Peru | 13 | 0.77 | 1970, 1978, (1982) | [17] | ||
Thomas Müller↑ | Germany | 13 | 0.77 | 2010, 2014 | [18] | ||
Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 20 | 0.50 | 1974, 1978, 1982 | [19] | ||
14 | Eusébio | Portugal | 9 | 6 | 1.50 | 1966 | [20] |
Christian Vieri | Italy | 9 | 1.00 | 1998, 2002 | [21] | ||
Vavá | Brazil | 10 | 0.90 | 1958, 1962 | [22] | ||
David Villa | Spain | 12 | 0.75 | 2006, 2010, 2014 | [23] | ||
Paolo Rossi | Italy | 14 | 0.64 | 1978, 1982, [1986] | [24] | ||
Jairzinho | Brazil | 16 | 0.56 | (1966), 1970, 1974 | [25] | ||
Roberto Baggio | Italy | 16 | 0.56 | 1990, 1994, 1998 | [26] | ||
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge | West Germany | 19 | 0.47 | 1978, 1982, 1986 | [27] | ||
Uwe Seeler | West Germany | 21 | 0.43 | 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 | [28] | ||
23 | Guillermo Stábile | Argentina | 8 | 4 | 2.00 | 1930 | [29] |
Leônidas | Brazil | 5 | 1.60 | 1934, 1938 | [nb 1][31] | ||
Ademir | Brazil | 6 | 1.33 | 1950 | [nb 2][34] | ||
Óscar Míguez | Uruguay | 7 | 1.14 | 1950, 1954 | [35] | ||
Rivaldo | Brazil | 14 | 0.57 | 1998, 2002 | [36] | ||
Rudi Völler | Germany | 15 | 0.53 | 1986, 1990, 1994 | [37] | ||
Diego Maradona | Argentina | 21 | 0.38 | 1982, 1986, (1990), 1994 | [38] | ||
30 | Oldřich Nejedlý | Czechoslovakia | 7 | 6 | 1.17 | 1934, 1938 | [nb 3][39] |
Lajos Tichy | Hungary | 8 | 0.88 | 1958, 1962, [1966] | [40] | ||
Careca | Brazil | 9 | 0.78 | 1986, 1990 | [41] | ||
Andrzej Szarmach | Poland | 13 | 0.54 | 1974, 1978, 1982 | [42] | ||
Johnny Rep | Netherlands | 13 | 0.54 | 1974, 1978 | [43] | ||
Hans Schäfer | West Germany | 15 | 0.47 | 1954, 1958, (1962) | [44] | ||
36 | Josef Hügi | Switzerland | 6 | 3 | 2.00 | 1954 | [45] |
Oleg Salenko | Russia | 3 | 2.00 | 1994 | [46] | ||
Max Morlock | West Germany | 5 | 1.20 | 1954 | [47] | ||
Erich Probst | Austria | 5 | 1.20 | 1954 | [48] | ||
György Sárosi | Hungary | 5 | 1.20 | 1934, 1938 | [49] | ||
James Rodríguez↑ | Colombia | 5 | 1.20 | 2014 | [50] | ||
Salvatore Schillaci | Italy | 7 | 0.86 | 1990 | [51] | ||
Davor Šuker | Croatia | 8 | 0.75 | [1990], 1998, (2002) | [nb 4][52] | ||
Helmut Haller | West Germany | 9 | 0.67 | (1962), 1966, (1970) | [53] | ||
Hristo Stoichkov | Bulgaria | 10 | 0.60 | 1994, (1998) | [54] | ||
Diego Forlán | Uruguay | 10 | 0.60 | 2002, 2010, (2014) | [55] | ||
Asamoah Gyan↑ | Ghana | 11 | 0.55 | 2006, 2010, 2014 | [56] | ||
Dennis Bergkamp | Netherlands | 12 | 0.50 | 1994, 1998 | [57] | ||
Rob Rensenbrink | Netherlands | 13 | 0.46 | 1974, 1978 | [58] | ||
Rivellino | Brazil | 15 | 0.40 | 1970, 1974, (1978) | [59] | ||
Bebeto | Brazil | 15 | 0.40 | (1990), 1994, 1998 | [60] | ||
Arjen Robben↑ | Netherlands | 15 | 0.40 | 2006, 2010, 2014 | [61] | ||
Zbigniew Boniek | Poland | 16 | 0.37 | 1978, 1982, (1986) | [62] | ||
Thierry Henry | France | 17 | 0.35 | 1998, (2002), 2006, (2010) | [63] | ||
Wesley Sneijder↑ | Netherlands | 17 | 0.35 | (2006), 2010, 2014 | [64] | ||
Robin van Persie↑ | Netherlands | 17 | 0.35 | 2006, 2010, 2014 | [65] | ||
Mario Kempes | Argentina | 18 | 0.33 | (1974), 1978, (1982) | [66] | ||
Lothar Matthäus | Germany | 25 | 0.24 | (1982), 1986, 1990, 1994, (1998) | [67] | ||
59 | Pedro Cea | Uruguay | 5 | 4 | 1.25 | 1930 | [68] |
Silvio Piola | Italy | 4 | 1.25 | 1938 | [69] | ||
Gyula Zsengellér | Hungary | 4 | 1.25 | 1938 | [70] | ||
Peter McParland | Northern Ireland | 5 | 1.00 | 1958 | [71] | ||
Tomáš Skuhravý | Czechoslovakia | 5 | 1.00 | 1990 | [72] | ||
Juan Alberto Schiaffino | Uruguay | 6 | 0.83 | 1950, 1954 | [73] | ||
Geoff Hurst | England | 6 | 0.83 | 1966, 1970 | [74] | ||
Jon Dahl Tomasson | Denmark | 6 | 0.83 | 2002, 2010 | [75] | ||
Alessandro Altobelli | Italy | 7 | 0.71 | 1982, 1986 | [76] | ||
Kennet Andersson | Sweden | 7 | 0.71 | 1994 | [77] | ||
Fernando Morientes | Spain | 7 | 0.71 | 1998, 2002 | [78] | ||
Romário | Brazil | 8 | 0.62 | (1990), 1994 | [79] | ||
Marc Wilmots | Belgium | 8 | 0.62 | [1990], (1994), 1998, 2002 | [80] | ||
Tim Cahill↑ | Australia | 8 | 0.62 | 2006, 2010, 2014 | [81] | ||
Luis Suárez↑ | Uruguay | 8 | 0.62 | 2010, 2014 | [82] | ||
Valentin Ivanov | Soviet Union | 9 | 0.55 | 1958, 1962 | [83] | ||
Roger Milla | Cameroon | 9 | 0.55 | (1982), 1990, 1994 | [84] | ||
Emilio Butragueño | Spain | 9 | 0.55 | 1986, (1990) | [85] | ||
Hans Krankl | Austria | 10 | 0.50 | 1978, 1982 | [86] | ||
Raúl | Spain | 11 | 0.45 | 1998, 2002, 2006 | [87] | ||
Gonzalo Higuaín↑ | Argentina | 11 | 0.45 | 2010, 2014 | [88] | ||
Garrincha | Brazil | 12 | 0.42 | (1958), 1962, 1966 | [89] | ||
Johan Neeskens | Netherlands | 12 | 0.42 | 1974, (1978) | [90] | ||
Fernando Hierro | Spain | 12 | 0.42 | [1990], 1994, 1998, 2002 | [91] | ||
Zinedine Zidane | France | 12 | 0.42 | 1998, (2002), 2006 | [92] | ||
Landon Donovan | United States | 12 | 0.42 | 2002, (2006), 2010 | [93] | ||
Henrik Larsson | Sweden | 13 | 0.38 | 1994, 2002, 2006 | [94] | ||
Michel Platini | France | 14 | 0.36 | 1978, 1982, 1986 | [95] | ||
Zico | Brazil | 14 | 0.36 | 1978, 1982, (1986) | [96] | ||
Lionel Messi↑ | Argentina | 14 | 0.36 | 2006, (2010), 2014 | [97] | ||
Lukas Podolski↑ | Germany | 15 | 0.33 | 2006, 2010, (2014) | [98] | ||
Franz Beckenbauer | West Germany | 18 | 0.28 | 1966, 1970, (1974) | [99] |
Timeline
Top goalscorers for each tournament
See also
- List of FIFA World Cup goalscorers
- List of FIFA World Cup hat-tricks
- List of FIFA World Cup own goals
- All-time table of the FIFA World Cup
Notes
- ↑ FIFA initially credited Leônidas with eight goals in the 1938 tournament, but in November 2006 however, FIFA revised it to seven (he scored one additional goal in 1934).[30]
- ↑ 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 fifth Brazilian goal was credited to Jair,[32] but are now credited to Ademir.[33]
- ↑ 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).[30]
- ↑ Davor Šuker was part of Yugoslavia's squad in the 1990 World Cup but did not play any games. After Yugoslavia split, he joined the Croatian national team.
- ↑ The two initial games of the 1930 World Cup ( France – Mexico[100] and United States – Belgium[101]) were played at the same time. Seven different players scored, with André Maschinot scoring two goals. The order in which these players are listed reflects the actual elapsed time in the games when their goals were scored.
References
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