Will Lionel Messi or Kylian Mbappé break World Cup scorer record?

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The FIFA World Cup is unquestionably the pinnacle of international football and excitement over the 23rd edition of the prestigious tournament is building rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of supporters will descend on the United States, Mexico and Canada with dreams of watching their team lifting the most famous trophy in football.

The inception of the tournament was in 1930 with Uruguay lifting the famous trophy for the first time on home soil with 13 nations participating since then. The World Cup has grown exponentially over the years and this summer will be the biggest ever with the World Cup extended to 48 teams for the first time in history. There’s been 2,720 goals scored in 964 games across the 22 World Cups but who are the top goalscorers of all-time? Let’s find out!

FIFA World Cup all-time leading scorers

Miroslav Klose is the leading scorer in World Cup history with 16 goals in 24 appearances across four tournaments. The legendary German striker netted five goals in his first World Cup in 2002 in Japan and Korea and he repeated that feat in 2006, when he finished top goalscorer. Klose retired after scoring twice as Germany won the 2014 World Cup, when he became the first player to score in four consecutive World Cups. As the graphic below illustrates, Ronaldo ranks second with 15 goals in 19 World Cup appearances for Brazil.

Despite never featuring, O Fenômeno won the World Cup with Brazil in 1994 before finishing top goalscorer in 1998 and Ronaldo scored eight goals in 2002. Another German legend sits third in Gerd Müller, who netted 13 goals across 14 appearances. Just Fontaine only played at one World Cup in 1958 but he incredibly scored 13 goals in just six games. Lionel Messi has also scored 13 goals at the World Cup with Kylian Mbappé just one behind on 12 goals. Both superstars will captain their respective nations this summer and both could feasibly break Klose’s all-time record.