Players have scored more than 3,000 goals in the 23 men’s FIFA World Cup tournaments, not counting penalty shoot-outs. Since the first goal by French player Lucien Laurent in 1930, nearly 1,300 footballers have scored goals at the World Cup tournaments, of whom 111 have scored five or more.
๐ Record Holders
The top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentina’s Guillermo Stรกbile, with eight goals. Since then, only 28 players have scored more World Cup goals in total than Stรกbile did during the 1930 tournament.
Germany’s Miroslav Klose broke Ronaldo’s record with his 16th goal in 2014. His record stood until Argentina’s Lionel Messi scored his 17th through 21st goals in 2026, and at the same World Cup, France’s Kylian Mbappรฉ became the current record holder after scoring his 22nd goal.
๐ Single Tournament Feats
Fontaine’s thirteen goals in 1958 remains the record for the most scored in a single World Cup tournament. The players that came closest to this tally were Kocsis in 1954 (eleven goals), Mรผller in 1970 (ten goals), and Mbappรฉ in 2026 (ten goals).
Across the 22 tournaments of the World Cup, 31 footballers have been credited as the tournament top scorer, and no one has achieved this feat twice. These 31 top goalscorers played for 19 nations, with the most (five) coming from Brazil.
๐ Player Origins
The top 111 goalscorers have represented 31 nations, with 15 players scoring for both Brazil and Germany or West Germany. In total, 75 footballers came from UEFA (Europe), 31 from CONMEBOL (South America), and only five from elsewhere.
Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo is the only player to have scored in six World Cups, while Argentina’s Lionel Messi has scored in five. Five players have each scored in four tournaments, while another 37 have each scored in three.
๐ฏ Notable Achievements
Of all the players who have played at the World Cup, only six have achieved an average of two goals or more per match played. Brazil’s Leรดnidas became the first player to score eight goals in knockout matches across his 1934 and 1938 World Cup appearances.
Mbappรฉ became the first player to score four goals in World Cup final matches. England’s Geoff Hurst is the only other player to record a hat-trick in a World Cup final, doing so in 1966.
| Player | Nation | Total Goals | Tournaments |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kylian Mbappรฉ | France | 22 | 2018, 2022, 2026 |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 21 | 2006โ2026 |
| Miroslav Klose | Germany | 16 | 2002โ2014 |
| Ronaldo | Brazil | 15 | 1998โ2006 |