FIFA World Cup top goalscorers
More than 2,000 goals have been scored in the 21 editions of the FIFA World Cup final tournaments, not counting penalties scored during shoot-outs.[1] Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the 1930 FIFA World Cup,[2] more than 1,250 footballers have scored goals in the World Cup final tournaments,[3] of whom just 97 have scored five or more.
Goals | ≥11 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nos. of players | 7 | 6 | 9 | 7 | 8 | 26 | 34 | >50 | >90 | >200 | >750 | >1,250 |
The top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentina's Guillermo Stábile with eight goals. Since then, only 22 players have scored more at all the games played at the World Cup than Stábile did throughout the 1930 tournament. The first was Hungary's Sándor Kocsis with eleven 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 for West Germany in 1970 and broke the overall record when he scored his 14th goal in the World Cup final tournament during West Germany's win in the 1974 final. His record stood for more than three decades until Ronaldo's 15 goals between 1998 and 2006 for Brazil. 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 surpassed 10 goals in the World Cup: Pelé with 12 between 1958 and 1970 for Brazil, and Jürgen Klinsmann with 11 between 1990 and 1998 for Germany.
Of all the players who have played in the World Cup finals, only six have achieved an average of two goals or more per game played: Kocsis, Fontaine, Stábile, Russia's Oleg Salenko, Switzerland's Josef Hügi, and Poland's Ernst Wilimowski — the last of these scored four in his single World Cup game in 1938.[6] The top 97 goalscorers have represented 28 nations, with 14 players scoring for Brazil, and another 14 for Germany or West Germany. In total, 64 footballers came from UEFA (Europe), 29 from CONMEBOL (South America), and only four 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 were Kocsis in 1954, Müller in 1970 and Portugal's Eusébio in 1966, with 11, 10 and 9, respectively. The lowest scoring top scorer was in 1962, when six players tied at only four goals each. Across the 21 editions of the World Cup finals, 30 footballers have been credited with the most tournament goals, and no one has achieved this feat twice. Nine of them scored at least seven goals in a tournament, while Brazil's Jairzinho became the only footballer to score at least seven goals without being the top goalscorer of that tournament in 1970. These 30 top goalscorers played for 19 nations, the most (five) for Brazil. Another five came from other South American countries, with the remaining 20 coming from Europe. Excluding the 2010 edition, all the top tournament scorers won the Golden Boot.
Overall top goalscorers
♦ | Denotes national top scorers (or joint top scorers) at the World Cup |
---|---|
# | Denotes players still active at international level |
[ ] | Denotes tournaments where the player was part of the squad, but did not play in a match |
( ) | Denotes tournaments where the player played in a match, but did not score a goal |
Timeline
Key | |
---|---|
Goal set a new record | |
Goal equalled the existing record |
Top goalscorers for each tournament
See also
Notes
- 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.[8]
- 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).[33]
- 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,[35] but is now credited to Ademir.[36]
- 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).[33]
- Davor Šuker was part of Yugoslavia's squad in the 1990 FIFA World Cup but did not play any games. After the breakup of Yugoslavia, he joined the Croatian national team.
- The two initial games of the 1930 FIFA World Cup (France vs Mexico[114] and United States vs Belgium[115]) were played at the same time, as seven 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.
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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.
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