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Most goals in World Cup history: Where Messi, Mbappe rank among FIFA's top scorers all time originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
The 2026 edition of the World Cup is well underway, and the world's best are back out on the pitch for another chase at the trophy.
Throughout history, a handful of players have separated themselves from the rest of the pack as top goalscorers in the tournament. Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi are the active players in the top 10 of the leaderboard suiting up for the 2026 World Cup.
It is worth looking at how Mbappe and Messi stack up across the tournament's history. Who has more World Cup goals, the Frenchman or the "Little Boy From Rosario"?
Here's a list of the players with their names on the scoresheet the most times in World Cup history.
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Most goals in World Cup history
| Rank | Player | Country | Goals | Matches | Tournaments (WC wins in bold) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Miroslav Klose | Germany | 16 | 24 | 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 |
| 2. | Ronaldo | Brazil | 15 | 19 | 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006 |
| 3. | Gerd Muller | West Germany | 14 | 13 | 1970, 1974 |
| = | Kylian Mbappe* | France | 14 | 15 | 2018, 2022, 2026 |
| 5. | Just Fontaine | France | 13 | 6 | 1958 |
| = | Lionel Messi* | Argentina | 13 | 26 | 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 |
| 7. | Pele | Brazil | 12 | 14 | 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970 |
| 8. | Sandor Kocsis | Hungary | 11 | 5 | 1954 |
| = | Jurgen Klinsmann | West Germany/Germany | 11 | 17 | 1990, 1994, 1998 |
| 10. | Helmut Rahn | West Germany | 10 | 10 | 1954, 1958 |
| = | Gary Lineker | England | 10 | 12 | 1986, 1990 |
| = | Gabriel Batistuta | Argentina | 10 | 12 | 1994, 1998, 2002 |
| = | Teofilo Cubillas | Peru | 10 | 13 | 1970, 1978, 1982 |
| = | Thomas Muller | Germany | 10 | 19 | 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 |
| = | Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 10 | 20 | 1974, 1978, 1982 |
Key: * signifies an active player, year in bold means a World Cup won
How many World Cups goals does Mbappe have?
- 14 goals (2018, 2022, 2026)
Mbappe put his 13th goal in the back of the net during France's 2026 World Cup opener against Senegal. Despite being only 27 years old, Mbappe has already established himself as one of France's all-time greats with 57 goals through 99 international games, according to Fabrizio Romano. After his first goal against Senegal on Tuesday, he became tied with Olivier Giroud with the most goals in French team history.
Here is Mbappe's first goal against Senegal that moved him up the all-time World Cup goalscorer leaderboard:
In stoppage time, Mbappe added his second goal of the game and moved ahead of Giroud to become France's all-time leading international goalscorer, with 58 goals. The goal was a rocket put across Edouard Mendy's net and rifled into the upper net to put France up 3-1 and end any chance Senegal had of coming back.
Here is Mbappe's history-making goal:
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