A total of over 2,700 goals have been Scored in the games at the Men's 22 final tournaments of the FIFA World Cup, not counting penalties scored during shoot-outs. Since the first goal scored by French player Lucien Laurent at the1930 FIFA WWorld Cup, almost 1,300 footballers have scored goals at the World Cup tournaments, of whom 101 have scored five or more.
The top goalscorer of the inaugural competition was Argentina's Guillermo Stábilewith eight goals. Since then, only 25 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 Muller scored 10 for West Germany in 1970 and broke the overall record when he scored his 14th goal in a tournament match at a World Cup during West Germany's win in the 1974 final. His record stood for more than three decades until Ronaldo de Lima15 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.
Of all the players who have played in the World Cup tournaments, 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. The top 101 goalscorers have represented 30 nations, with 14 players scoring for Brazil, and another 14 for Germany or West Germany. In total, 67 footballers came from UEFA (Europe), 30 from CONMEBOL (South America), and only four from elsewhere: Cameroon, Ghana, Australia, and the United States.
Just Fontaine holds the record for the most goals scored in 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 22 tournaments of the World Cup, 31 footballers have been credited with the most tournament goals, and no one has achieved this feat twice. Ten of them scored at least seven goals in a tournament, while Brazil's Jairzinho and Argentine's Lionel Messi were the only footballers to score at least seven goals without being the top goalscorer of the tournament in 1970 and 2022, respectively. These 31 top goalscorers played for 20 nations, the most (five) for Brazil. Another five came from other South American countries, with the remaining 21 coming from Europe.
In 2006, De Lima Ronaldo was the first to score 8 goals in knockout matches (excluding 3rd place playoff) at the World Cup in his 3 tournaments for Brazil, tied in 2022 by Kylian Mbappe. Mbappé became the first player to score 4 goals in World Cup finals with his hat-trick in 2022.Ronaldo de lima rank is seconda is mong players with the most goals, scoring 15, including two I the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final.
Among players still active at international level, Lionel Messi has the most goals at FIFA World Cups, with 13 goals to his name, including two in the 2002 FIFA World Cup Final.
Asamoah Gyan with six goals for Ghana, is the only player outside of Europe or South America to score more than five goals at the World Cup.
Cristiano Ronaldo with 8 goals is the only male player to score in five World Cup tournaments group stages. Cristiano Ronaldo with 8 goals is the only male player to score in five World Cup tournaments group-stage.
1. Mirosla klose - 16 goals
2. Ronaldo De Lima - 15 goals
3. Gerd Muller - 14 goals
4. Just Fotaine - 13 goals &
5. Lionel Messi - 13 goal.
6. Pele - 12 goals.
7. Kylian Mbappe - 12 goals
8. Sandor Kocsis - 11 goals
9. Jurgen klinsmann - 11 goals
10. Gary Lineker - 10 goals
11. Gabriel Batistuta
12. Teofilo Cubillas
13. Thomas Muller
14. Grzegorz Lato
15. Ademir De Menezes Queixada
