ANNUAL SUMMARY – 2024

Here is a post dedicated to FIFA World Cup top scorers by each tournament, then top scorers in the WC history and some other interesting facts.
Let's start with the first ever goal scorer back in 1930 when the first World cup was held.



Frenchman Lucien Lauren is the first ever WC goal scorer. It was in a match versus Mexico.


TOP GOALSCORERS AT EACH FIFA WORLD CUP TOURNAMENT

1930- Guillermo Stabile (Argentina)- 8 goals


1934- Oldrich Nejedly (Czechoslovakia)- 5 goals


1938- Leonidas da Silva (Brazil)- 7 goals


1950- Ademir (Brazil)- 9 goals


1954- Sandor Kocsis (Hungary)- 11 goals


1958- Just Fontaine (France)- 13 goals








1962- Dražan Jerković (Yugoslavia), Florian Albert (Hungary), Garrincha and Vava (both Brazil), Leonel Sanchez (Chile), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union)- 4 goals each



1966- Eusebio (Portugal)- 9 goals



1970- Gerd Muller (West Germany)- 10 goals


1974- Grzegorz Lato (Poland)- 7 goals


1978- Mario Kempes (Argentina)- 6 goals



1982- Paolo Rossi (Italia)- 6 goals


1986- Gary Lineker (England)- 6 goals


1990- Salvatore Schillaci (Italy)- 6 goals


1994- Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria), Oleg Salenko (Russia)- 6 goals each


1998- Davor Šuker (Croatia)- 6 goals


2002- Ronaldo (Brazil)- 8 goals


2006- Miroslav Klose (Germany)- 5 goals





2010- Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands), Thomas Muller (Germany), Diego Forlan (Uruguay), David Villa (Spain)- 5 goals each



2014- James Rodriguez (Colombia)- 6 goals



2018- Harry Kane (England)- 6 goals



2022- Kylian Mbappe (France)- 8 goals



OVERALL FIRST FIVE FIFA WORLD CUP TOP SCORERS:

1. Miroslav Klose- 16 goals (2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014)



2. Ronaldo- 15 goals (1994 (didn't play), 1998, 2002 and 2006)



3. Gerd Muller- 14 goals (1970 and 1974)


4. Just Fontaine- 13 goals (1958)
This is also a record for most goals by a player in one tournament



4. Lionel Messi- 13 goals (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022)



Bert Patenaude (USA)- Scorer of the first World cup hat-trick. Versus Paraguay in 1930.


Robert Prosinečki (Yugoslavia / Croatia)- The only footballer that scored for two different nations in World Cup history. He played for former Yugoslavia in the 1990 edition and scored against United Arab Emirates. Robert then represented Croatia in 1998 and 2002. He scored two goals in 1998, one vs Jamaica and other in a match for third place vs Netherlands.