Klose, top scorer in the WC with 16 goals

Miroslav Klose was born in Poland on 9th June 1978. The German striker had a magnificent career, especially in the FIFA World Cup. In 2014 at Brazil, he surpassed Ronaldo Nazario, who is second in the all-time scoring table with 15 goals.

He could say goodbye with a personal historic milestone and with the title in Brazil after winning the final against Leo Messi's Argentina. He made his debut for Germany on 24th March 2001 after scoring a goal against Albania. He played 137 competitive matches and he scored 71 goals, the last of them was netted against Brazil in the World Cup semi-final, which also put him at the top of the top scorers' list.

He retired for good in 2016 when his time at Lazio came to an end. He scored five goals at Korea and Japan 2002 and Germany 2006, four at South Africa 2010 and two in Brazil. He surpassed Ronaldo and another legend, Gerd Muller, who scored 14 goals. In total, 16 goals in this tournament.

 

November 4, 2022

France's Just Fontaine scored 13 goals, all of them netted at Sweden 1958, a record no one has ever come close to, except Sandor Kocsis, who managed to score 11 goals at Switzerland 1954, and Pele netted 12 goals.

The Brazilian footballer played 137 competitive matches also became the youngest footballer to score on his debut against Wales at the age of 17 years and 239 days.

The first World Cup goal was scored by Lucien Laurent against Mexico in Montevideo on July 1930 and the last was scored by Croatia's Mario Mandzukic, who made it 4-2 in France's 4-2 victory in the final in Moscow on July 2018.

The record for goals in a match is held by Russia's Oleg Salenko, who scored five times against Cameroon. Despite the 6-1 scoreline, his team did not advance from the group stage.

Nowadays, Thomas Muller has scored the most goals in World Cups. He has netted ten goals between South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018. In Qatar 2022, he has the opportunity to improve his stats.