The World Cup He saw during his various editions the best strikers in the history of football, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Ronaldo Nazario, Ferenc Puskás, Gerd Müller and many more.
However, the name of the player with more goals in the history of the World Cups It can be striking, since it is the German Miroslav Klose. A great striker, but does not reach the legend level that the aforementioned had.
Klose, that was born in Poland and German nationalized, he played four editions of the World Cup and in none of them he got off the semifinals. In Korea-Japan 2002, Germany He was a finalist, in Germany 2006 and South Africa 2010 It was third and in Brazil 2014 They got the long-awaited fourth star by winning the final 1-0 to the Argentine National Team.
The German striker did not have exorbitant statistics at Clubs level, since he scored “only” 280 goals in 705 games. But when he reached World Cups It became a true nightmare.
In his first two participations in the World Cup he scored five goals in each one, in South Africa 2010 made another four and in Brazil 2014 exceeded the record that showed Ronaldo Nazario Thanks to its annotations against Portugal in the group stage and Brazil in that historic semifinal that ended 7-1 for the Bavarian.
In total, he made 16 goals in 24 games, with a remarkable average of 0.66 goals per game.
The podium is completed by the Brazilian Ronaldo, Thanks to its 15 goals among the World Cups of 1998, 2002 and 2006 (He was also part of the Brazilian team in 1994 but did not add minutes) and the German Gerd Müllerwith 14 annotations between the editions of 1970 and 1974.
Then the French appears Just Fontainewho only played in Sweden 1958 And he scored the impressive sum of 13 goals (record of annotations in the same edition, with an average of 2.17 per game).
Messi and Mbappé, in search of the record in 2026
In it World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico 2026 A historical fact could be given, since the Argentine star Lionel Messi and the French Kylian Mbappé could dethrone Klose like the player with more goals in the history of World Cups
Messi He had started very lazy in this statistic, with only six goals among his participations in Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. However, in Qatar 2022 made another seven and reached the 13.
Mbappé, For its part, it is determined to destroy this brand. In just two participations he scored 12 (four in Russia 2018 and eight in Qatar 2022which allowed him to be the scorer of that edition).
The Gallic player will arrive next World with 27 years and could have two other editions ahead to not only overcome the brand of Klose, but also destroy it if it continues with the level that demonstrated every time he played the most important tournament in the world of football.
The 10 top scorers in the history of the World Cups:
- Miroslav Klose (Germany): 16 goals in 24 games
- Ronaldo Nazario (Brazil): 15 goals in 19 games
- Gerd Müller (Germany): 14 goals in 13 games
- Just Fontaine (France): 13 goals in 6 games
- Lionel Messi (Argentina): 13 goals in 26 games
- Kylian Mbappé (France): 12 goals in 14 games
- Pelé (Brazil): 12 goals in 14 games
- Sandor Kocsis (Hungary): 11 goals in 5 games
- Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany): 11 goals in 17 games
- Helmut Rahn (Germany): 10 goals in 10 games.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
