WORLD CUP: Who are the top scorers?

With the World Cup about to start, it is interesting to remember the great achievements of different players and their respective countries in the championship. Thus, Odds Scanner evaluated who are the main players and nations with more goal balances throughout the championship, as well as the teams that stood out the most in terms of penalty shootouts.

Top scorers in World Cup history (players and nations)

Winning the title of top scorer in the World Cup is not an easy job – the competition only takes place between the best players from the best teams every 4 years. But, still, it is not impossible.

With four players from Germany and two from Brazil in the top 10 top scorers at the World Cup, these two nations also rank 1st and 2nd respectively when it comes to teams with the most goals scored at the tournament.

Top scorers:

1. Miroslav Klose (Germany): 16 goals – 28 games (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014)

2. Ronaldo Fenômeno (Brazil): 15 goals – 19 games (1994, 1998, 2002, 2006)

3. Gerd Müller (Germany):14 goals – 13 games (1970, 1974)

4. Just Fontaine (France): 13 goals – 6 games (1958)

5. Pelé (Brazil):12 goals – 14 games (1958, 1962, 1966, 1970)

6. Sándor Kocsis (Hungary): 11 goals – 5 games (1954)

7. Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany): 11 goals – 17 games (1990, 1994, 1998)

8. Helmut Rahn (Germany*): 10 goals – 10 games (1954, 1958)

9. Gary Lineker (England): 10 goals – 12 games (1986, 1990)

10. Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina): 10 goals – 12 games (1994, 1998, 2002)

(From 1945 to 1990, the team that took part in the World Cup was West Germany)

Countries with the most goals:

1. Germany: 229 goals – 19 tournaments

2. Brazil: 226 goals – 21 tournaments

3. Argentina: 137 goals – 17 tournaments

4. Italy: 127 goals – 18 tournaments

5. France: 120 goals – 15 tournaments

6. England: 91 goals – 15 tournaments

7. Spain: 90 goals – 15 tournaments

8. Hungary: 87 goals – 9 tournaments

9. Uruguay: 87 goals – 13 tournaments

10. Netherlands: 86 goals – 10 tournaments

Teams that have won most penalties:

Although the World Cup has been around for almost 100 years, it was not until 1978 that the penalty shootout was introduced as a tie-breaker, and it was only used for the first time in the following edition in 1982. Since then, every edition has had at least one match decided by a penalty shootout.

To date, Argentina has been the team that has participated most in penalty shoot-outs in the World Cup, with 5 matches decided this way – of those, the team has won 4 times. Although six nations (Germany, Brazil, France, Spain, Italy and England) have 4 matches ended in penalty kicks, Germany is the most prominent, having won all of them. Brazil is in third place, winning 3 out of 4 matches.

Check out the teams that have participated (and won) most in penalty shootouts in World Cups.