Lionel Messi did it again. Two goals against Austria on Tuesday night pushed Argentina to a 2-0 win and pushed Messi past Miroslav Klose for the most goals in World Cup history. He’s now sitting at 18 career goals in the tournament. That feels like a big number until you look at how fast some of the other guys got theirs.
Gerd Muller set the bar, and then some
Back in the 1970s, Gerd Muller was basically automatic. He scored 14 goals in just 13 World Cup games across two tournaments. That’s better than a goal per game, which is absurd. Ten of those came in 1970 alone when West Germany reached the semifinals. That performance won him the Ballon d’Or that year. Then he came back in 1974, scored four more, and buried the winner in the final against the Netherlands. Team success, individual glory, the whole package.
Ronaldo’s redemption arc is still unmatched
Ronaldo Nazario’s World Cup story has everything. He was on Brazil’s 1994 squad as a teenager but never played. By 1998 he was the best player on the planet and scored four goals en route to the final. Then disaster. He got sick hours before kickoff, played anyway, and Brazil lost to France. Fast forward to 2002 and he completed one of the great comebacks in sports. After missing nearly three years with knee injuries, he scored eight goals, won the Golden Boot, and Brazil took the trophy. He added three more in 2006 and finished with 15 career World Cup goals.
Mbappe is coming for everything
Kylian Mbappe is 27 years old and already has 16 World Cup goals. That’s 16 in 16 games. He’s won one, lost another, and scored a hat trick in a final loss. That alone is wild. He opened the 2026 tournament with braces against Senegal and Iraq, which pushed him past Pele, Just Fontaine, Gerd Muller, and Ronaldo on the all-time list. He also became France’s all-time leading scorer with 60 international goals. At this pace he might end up with the World Cup record too, assuming he stays healthy and France keeps making deep runs.
Klose held the record for years
Miroslav Klose scored 16 World Cup goals in four tournaments. He announced himself with a hat trick against Saudi Arabia in his first World Cup game in 2002. By 2006 he’d won the Golden Boot on home soil. In 2014 he finally got the trophy Germany had been chasing, scoring the goal that broke the record in a 1-0 win over Argentina. He was never the flashiest player but he was relentless.
Now Messi stands alone
Messi entered his sixth World Cup with 13 career goals. He opened the 2026 tournament with a hat trick against Algeria and followed it with two against Austria. That’s five in two games and 18 total. He’s now the all-time leader. And it’s not like he just shows up and collects records — he won the Golden Ball in 2022 after finally lifting the trophy. That was the one thing missing from his resume and now it’s there. The record is just the cherry on top.
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