Lionel Messi’s hat-trick against Algeria in Argentina’s 3-0 win on Tuesday took his World Cup tally to 16 goals, drawing him level with Miroslav Klose at the top of the tournament’s all-time scoring chart. Twenty-four hours earlier, Kylian Mbappé had scored twice in France’s 2-1 defeat of Senegal to move on to 14. With Argentina and France both expected to advance deep into the knockout rounds, the record Klose set across four tournaments between 2002 and 2014 is unlikely to survive the month.
The chase to 16 and beyond
Klose’s 16 goals were spread across 24 appearances, an average of one every 144 minutes. Messi has needed 26 matches to match the tally, but the trajectory has steepened sharply. He scored once in 2006, once in 2010, four times in 2014 and a single goal in 2018 before the 2022 explosion in Qatar, where he registered seven in seven on the way to lifting the trophy. The hat-trick against Algeria — a low driven finish from the edge of the box, a penalty, and a curled effort from the left after Julián Álvarez had cut the Algerian defence open — was his first at a World Cup.
Mbappé’s numbers are arguably more striking. The 27-year-old has 14 goals from 16 matches, a rate that already places him third on the all-time list behind only Messi and Klose, and ahead of Ronaldo Nazário (15) and Gerd Müller (14). He needed only two tournaments and an opening fixture to overhaul Pelé (12) and Just Fontaine (13, all scored in 1958). His brace against Senegal — a low strike from Ousmane Dembélé’s cut-back and a header from Jules Koundé’s cross — extended a sequence in which he has scored in seven consecutive World Cup matches.
The names they are passing
The all-time top 10 reads as a roll call of the tournament’s defining forwards:
- Miroslav Klose (Germany) — 16
- Lionel Messi (Argentina) — 16
- Ronaldo Nazário (Brazil) — 15
- Kylian Mbappé (France) — 14
- Gerd Müller (West Germany) — 14
- Just Fontaine (France) — 13
- Pelé (Brazil) — 12
- Sándor Kocsis (Hungary) — 11
- Jürgen Klinsmann (West Germany/Germany) — 11
- Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina) — 10
Context matters as much as the column of numbers. Fontaine’s 13 came in a single tournament, in Sweden in 1958, a record that has stood for 68 years and shows no sign of falling. Müller scored his 14 in just 13 matches, the most efficient return on the list. Klose, by contrast, was a tournament specialist who reached four semi-finals and finally a final, accumulating goals through longevity and Germany’s habit of going deep. Messi has done it across five tournaments without ever winning a Golden Boot, and Ronaldo’s 15 came despite injury wiping out the bulk of his 2006 campaign.
What 2026 changes
The expanded 48-team format has handed both forwards an extra game’s worth of opportunity. A finalist now plays eight matches rather than seven, and the new round of 32 has shortened the gap in quality between group-stage opponents and early knockout opposition. Messi needs one goal to break the record outright. Argentina face South Korea on Saturday before completing Group J against Tunisia, and Lionel Scaloni confirmed after the Algeria win that his captain will start both.
Mbappé’s path is steeper but the runway is longer. France meet Iran on Sunday and the United States in their final group game, with Didier Deschamps using the Senegal victory to rest Antoine Griezmann and shift Mbappé centrally — the position from which he scored four times in the 2022 final. Three more goals would take him level with Klose; five would take him past Messi if Argentina exit before the semi-finals. At his current rate of 0.88 goals per match, a run to the final in New Jersey on 19 July would deliver something close to 20.
Klose, watching from a coaching role with Nürnberg’s under-19s, has already conceded the record is going. The only question left is which of the two takes it, and how far out of reach they leave it for whoever comes next.
Sports journalist and editor at SportsPortal.net. Covers cricket, football, Formula 1, tennis, and basketball with a focus on how global sports connect with Pakistani audiences. Follows the PSL, Pakistan national cricket team, Premier League, and major international tournaments. Has reported on sports for digital audiences since 2021.
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