Sport

All-Time World Cup Top Scorers

With Argentina's World Cup final victory over France on Sunday, Lionel Messi, 7 times Ballon d'Or winner, added the final title that was missing from his extraordinary honors list. The 35-year-old forward also broke the record for appearances in the World Cup (26 games) and enters the top 5 of the leading scorers in the competition: with 13 goals scored in 5 tournaments since 2006.

Having scored a hat-trick in the final, Kylian Mbappé won the "Golden Boot" as a consolation prize. The French striker finished at the top with 8 goals, just ahead of Messi (7). In total, at 23 years of age, he has scored 12 goals in 2 tournaments and is thus at the same level as Pele in the pantheon of World Cup scorers.

As our infographic shows, the top scorer in the history of the World Cup remains German striker Miroslav Klose, who scored a total of 16 goals across 4 tournaments with the Mannschaft from 2002 to 2014.

Description

This chart shows the timeline of goals scored by the highest scorers at the FIFA Men's World Cup.

Download Chart
Premium statistics
Public opinion on a six-country FIFA World Cup 2024, by country
Teams most likely to win the FIFA World Cup 2022
Premium statistics
FIFA World Cup appearances of women's African football teams 2023, by country
FIFA World Cup: winners prize money 1982-2022
Premium statistics
Share of people watching the FIFA World Cup in Africa in 2018 and 2022
FIFA World Cup: total prize pool 2002-2022

Any more questions?

Get in touch with us quickly and easily.
We are happy to help!

Do you still have questions?

Feel free to contact us anytime using our contact form or visit our FAQ page.

Statista Content & Design

Need infographics, animated videos, presentations, data research or social media charts?

More Information