Most World Cup goals in a single tournament: Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappe…

With the expansion to 48 teams meaning more games than usual, could this summer see a record broken for the most goals by a player at a World Cup?

It’s unlikely, with the record having stood since the 1950s and only three players ever reaching double figures in a single tournament. But you look at Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland all scoring for fun and you have to wonder.

For now, though, the nine players below remain the highest scorers at a single World Cup.

1. Just Fontaine – 13 (1958)

We honestly couldn’t tell you much else about Fontaine’s career without checking (could you?), but he was the World Cup’s all-time record scorer after his efforts in 1958 and remained so for 16 years, despite never playing at another tournament.

Fontaine, who was 24 at the time and played his club football for Nice, marked his World Cup debut with a hat trick against Paraguay and then scored in every game that followed.

The rest of the group stage saw a brace against Yugoslavia and a goal against Scotland. Next, he scored twice against Northern Ireland in the quarter-finals and then once against Brazil in a semi-final defeat.

And thus, the last four goals of Fontaine’s World Cup campaign were scored in the third-place play-off win over West Germany. Four goals in any game is impressive, but a third-place play off… should they really count towards his World Cup tally? Has it been a myth this whole time?

2. Sandor Kocsis – 11 (1954)

The top scorer in a single World Cup without stat-padding in a third-place play-off was Hungary’s Kocsis from the previous edition in 1954.

Like Fontaine, the tournament at which he broke the scoring record was also the only one he ever played at.

Also like Fontaine, he scored a hat trick on debut, in his case in a 9-0 win against South Korea. He went one better in the next game to score four against West Germany, as Hungary only won 8-3.

This was their golden era with Ferenc Puskas – the only man to score more goals for their national team in history than Kocsis – and they went all the way to the final.

Kocsis scored braces against Brazil in the quarter-final and Uruguay in the semi-final as Hungary knocked out the runners up and winners of the previous edition.

But he drew a blank in the final as West Germany got their revenge for their group-stage defeat and pipped them to the Jules Rimet trophy.

3. Gerd Muller – 10 (1970)

Muller made his international debut a few months after the 1966 World Cup, so had plenty of experience in the bag by the time the 1970 tournament rolled around.

Then 24 and already with more than 200 Bayern Munich goals to his name, Muller scored on his World Cup debut against Morocco and added an assist too.

He scored hat tricks in their next two group games, against Bulgaria and Peru, before scoring the goal after extra time that knocked reigning champions England out at the quarter-final stage.

A brace against Italy in the semi-final followed, but it wasn’t enough to prevent his side from losing.

Unlike the two men above him on this list, Muller would be back at the World Cup, adding another four goals at the next edition to overtake Fontaine as the competition’s all-time record scorer – a record that stood until 2006.

=4. Ademir – 9 (1950)

Ademir played for Brazil for nine years, but with it being the post-War era, there was only one World Cup in that timeframe.

He made the most of it, though, scoring a brace on his debut against Mexico.

Further goals against Yugoslavia and Spain followed either side of a four-goal haul against Sweden.

Rather than scoring again, Ademir assisted Brazil’s only goal in the infamous 2-1 loss to Uruguay that effectively acted as a final, even though it wasn’t technically.

=4. Eusebio – 9 (1966)

Another player who only ever went to one World Cup but claimed the Golden Boot, Eusebio scored nine from just six games (the same ratio as Ademir, incidentally) for Portugal in 1966.

Eusebio didn’t score on his World Cup debut, but did make an assist against Hungary. In every game that followed, he found the net.

One against Bulgaria and two against Brazil in the group stage. Four against North Korea in the quarter-final. One against England in the semi-final, but that’s where Portugal got knocked out.

Still, Eusebio scored their opener in the third-place play-off against the Soviet Union, a game they went on to win 2-1.

=6. Guillermo Stabile – 8 (1930)

The top scorer at the very first World Cup was Argentina’s Stabile. Never mind this being his only World Cup, these were his only four caps ever for his country.

And he averaged two goals a game from them. Stabile scored a hat trick against France and brace against Chile in the group stage, another brace against the USA in the semi-final and a goal in the final defeat to Uruguay.

He became one of the first players ever to earn a big move on the back of a major tournament, coming to Europe with Genoa later that summer.

Stabile later managed Argentina at the 1958 World Cup, but they finished bottom of their group.

=6. Ronaldo – 8 (2002)

Curiously, Ronaldo is the only man on this list to actually win the World Cup in the same campaign of his high scoring.

The year was 2002 and it was the success Ronaldo had been longing for after the pre-match fit that limited his impact on the 1998 final against France.

The Brazil striker had scored four goals at the 1998 World Cup, but scored twice as many in 2002. The only team he failed to score against was England in the quarter-final.

Turkey, China and Costa Rica all conceded to Ronaldo in the group stage (twice in the latter’s case), as did Belgium in the round of 16 and Turkey again in the semi-final.

And in the best possible response to the previous final – despite that haircut – Ronaldo scored a brace in a 2-0 win over Germany this time around to guide his country to glory.

At the following World Cup, he scored another three goals to overtake Muller in the all-time scorers chart. Those fan sites were beside themselves.

=6. Kylian Mbappe – 8 (2022)

Lionel Messi may have just become the World Cup’s all-time record scorer, but we have a sneaky suspicion Mbappe will overtake him one day.

He was still a teenager when he went to his first World Cup in 2018, winning it with France.

Having scored four goals along the way, he bagged eight at the next edition. There was one against Australia and two against Denmark in the group stage, two against Poland in the round of 16 and then a hat trick in the final against Argentina – and yet he still ended up on the losing side.

It led to some pretty funny photos after of Mbappe sulking with the Golden Boot he’d just been awarded.

=6. Lionel Messi – 8 (2026)

Three goals against Algeria, Messi’s first-ever World Cup hat-trick, and two against Austria saw him become the highest scorer in the competition’s history.

Coming off the bench to score against Jordan was the icing on the cake, setting yet another new record by becoming the first player in World Cup history to score in seven consecutive outings.

That record now stands at nine; his effort against Cape Verde was reminiscent of Dennis Bergkamp’s famous goal at France ’98.

Messi missed a penalty against Egypt – to go alongside his failure from the spot against Austria – but still scored as Argentina staged a stunning comeback.

With Switzerland’s stubborn defence up next, Argentina will be relying on more Messi magic to continue their title defence.

READ MORE: Comparing Lionel Messi & Cristiano Ronaldo’s all-time World Cup stats: Goals, assists, penalties…

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to have scored a World Cup hat-trick since 1966?