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The GOAT continues to shock the world as Lionel Messi now reigns atop the all-time World Cup goalscorers list.
With his two goals against Austria in Argentina’s group match on June 22, Messi surpassed the record long held by Germany’s Miroslav Klose. It came a week after Messi scored his first career World Cup hat trick in a victory over Algeria, while also setting the record as the oldest player (38) to record a hat trick in the tournament, surpassing Cristiano Ronaldo’s feat from 2022, when he was 33 years old.
But this list could change even more. Frenchman Kylian Mbappé has 16 all-time World Cup goals, tied for second in history, and is already adding goals to his tally this summer. That being said, here are the players with the most goals in the history of the men’s World Cups. Let’s take a look.
1. Lionel Messi (Argentina): 18
Messi’s five goals in the 2026 World Cup have given him another record on his resume. Messi has played in every World Cup since 2006 and scored in all but one (2010). He scored seven goals in the 2022 World Cup. Messi is also Argentina’s all-time leading scorer with 122 to his name and also holds the record for most World Cup games played with 28.
T-2. Kylian Mbappé (France): 16
(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)
Mbappé has scored an outrageous 16 goals in just 16 World Cup matches in his career. As a 19-year-old in 2018, he scored four goals for France, helping them win their first title since 1998, and then scored eight goals in 2022, notably scoring the second hat-trick in a World Cup final against Argentina. In the 2026 tournament, he has four so far.
T-2. Miroslav Klose (Germany): 16
(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Playing in four consecutive World Cups from 2002 to 2014, Klose scored in all four World Cup editions he participated in, culminating in lifting the trophy in 2016. His 71 goals for Germany are also the most in the national team’s history.
4. Ronaldo (Brazil): 15
(Photo by Gunnar Berning/Bongarts/Getty Images)
Ronaldo is considered by many to be the greatest striker of all time, having scored over 350 club goals and 62 for Brazil. Fifteen of those international goals came in the World Cup, en route to winning the Ballon d’Or in the 1998 tournament and the Golden Boot in 2002.
5. Gerd Müller (Germany): 14
(Photo by Werner Schulze/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Arguably the greatest Bundesliga goalscorer of all time, Müller scored an astonishing 10 goals in 1970 and then another four in 1974 in Germany’s title race. He was Germany’s all-time leading scorer with 68 goals until Klose surpassed him.
6. Just Fontaine (France): 13
(Photo by dpa/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
Fontaine has one of the most incredible statistics in World Cup history, as his 13 goals came in the 1958 edition of the tournament, the record for most goals scored by a player in a single World Cup. It’s been 68 years since he set that record and no one has come close to breaking it.
7. Pelé (Brazil): 12
(Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
The great Pelé scored in all four of his World Cup appearances from 1958 to 1970 and won three titles with Brazil in that span. In particular, he scored in the 1958 final, being the youngest to do so, at only 17 years old.
T-8. Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany): 11
(Photo by Mark Leech/Offside/Getty Images)
Klinsmann scored in three consecutive World Cups from 1990 to 1998, helping Germany lift the trophy in 1990. His 47 goals for Germany in total tie for the fourth-most in national team history.
T-8. Sándor Kocsis (Hungary): 11
(Photo by ullstein bild/ullstein bild via Getty Images)
Kocsis’s 11 goals all came in 1954, when his Hungarian team scored 27 in five games before losing in the final to West Germany. He is the only player to have reached double figures in a World Cup, apart from Fontaine and Müller.
Seven players have exactly 10 goals in the World Cup: Helmut Rahn (Germany), Gary Lineker (England), Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina), Teófilo Cubillas (Peru), Thomas Müller (Germany) and Grzegorz Lato (Poland).
