A total of 81 countries have scored at least one goal in the history of the FIFA World Cup, with each nation producing a leading marksman who has etched his name into the competition’s record books.
China PR, Indonesia and Trinidad and Tobago are the only teams to have participated in the World Cup without scoring a goal.
The three countries have each featured at least once at the tournament but remain the only participating nations yet to find the net in the competition.
FIFA on Friday in a release titled, “Every nation’s top World Cup goalscorer,” published highest goal scorers for 81 countries.
While Nigeria is represented on the list by former Super Eagles forward, Ahmed Musa with four goals, the list is headlined by France’s Kylian Mbappé, who has scored 22 goals, followed by Argentina’s Lionel Messi with 21 and Germany’s Miroslav Klose with 16.
Brazil’s Ronaldo is next on 15 goals, while Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis has 11. Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal and Peru’s Teofilo Cubillas have 11 and 10 goals, respectively, while Italy’s Roberto Baggio, Paolo Rossi and Christian Vieri, as well as Spain’s David Villa, have each scored nine goals.
Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku and Uruguay’s Oscar Miguez complete the list of players with at least eight goals.
Here is an alphabetical ordering of nations and their top scorers:
Algeria: Salah Assad, Abdelmoumene Djabou, Riyad Mahrez & Islam Slimani – 2 goals
Angola: Flavio – 1 goal
Argentina: Lionel Messi – 21 goals
Australia: Tim Cahill – 5 goals
Austria: Erich Probst – 6 goals
Belgium: Romelu Lukaku – 8 goals
Bolivia: – Erwin Sanchez – 1 goal
Bosnia and Herzegovina: Ermin Mahmic – 2 goals
Brazil: Ronaldo – 15 goals Bulgaria: Hristo Stoichkov – 6 goals
Cabo Verde: Deroy Duarte, Sidny Lopes Cabral, Kevin Pina & Helio Varela – 1 goal
Egypt: Mohamed Salah – 3 goals
El Salvador: Luis Ramirez – 1 goal
England: Harry Kane – 14 goals
France: Kylian Mbappe – 22 goals
Germany: Miroslav Klose – 16 goals
Ghana: Asamoah Gyan – 6 goals
Greece: Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Dimitrios Salpingidis, Andreas Samaris, Georgios Samaras & Vasileios Torosidis – 1 goal
Haiti: Emmanuel Sanon – 2 goals
Honduras: Carlo Costly, Eduardo Laing & Hector Zelaya – 1 goal
Hungary: Sandor Kocsis – 11 goals Iceland: Alfred Finnbogason & Gylfi Sigurdsson – 1 goal
Iraq: Aymen Hussein & Ahmed Radhi – 1 goal
IR Iran: Ramin Rezaeian – 3 goals
Israel: Mordechai Spiegler – 1 goal
Italy: Roberto Baggio, Paolo Rossi & Christian Vieri – 9 goals
Jamaica: Theodore Whitmore – 2 goals
Japan: Keisuke Honda – 4 goals
Jordan: Nizar Alrashdan, Mousa Altamari & Ali Olwan – 1 goal
Korea DPR: Pak Seung-zin – 2 goals
Korea Republic: Ahn Junghwan, Son Heungmin & Park Jisung – 3 goals
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Kuwait: Abdulaziz Al-Balushi & Faisal Al-Dakhil – 2 goals
Mexico: Javier Hernandez, Luis Hernandez & Julian Quinones – 4 goals
Morocco: Youssef En-Nesyri & Ismael Saibari – 3 goals
Netherlands: Johnny Rep – 7 goals
New Zealand: Elijah Just – 3 goals
Nigeria: Ahmed Musa – 4 goals
Northern Ireland: Peter McParland – 5 goals
Norway: Erling Haaland – 7 goals
Panama: Felipe Baloy – 1 goal
Paraguay: Nelson Cuevas – 3 goals
Peru: Teofilo Cubillas – 10 goals
Poland: Grzegorz Lato – 10 goals
Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo – 11 goals
Qatar: Hassan Alhaydos & Mohammed Muntari – 1 goal
Republic of Ireland: Robbie Keane – 3 goals
Romania: Florin Raducioiu – 3 goals
Russia: Oleg Salenko – 6 goals
Saudi Arabia: Salem Aldawsari & Sami Al-Jaber – 3 goals
Scotland: Joe Jordan – 4 goals Senegal: Ismaila Sarr – 5 goals
Serbia: Drazen Jerkovic – 4 goals
Slovakia: Robert Vittek – 4 goals
Slovenia: Milenko Acimovic, Valter Birsa, Sebastijan Cimirotic, Robert Koren & Zlatan Ljubijankic – 1 goal
South Africa: Shaun Bartlett & Benni McCarthy – 2 goals
Spain: David Villa – 9 goals
Sweden: Kennet Andersson & Henrik Larsson – 5 goals
Switzerland: Sepp Huegi – 6 goals
Togo: Mohamed Kader – 1 goal
Tunisia: Wahbi Khazri – 3 goals
Türkiye: Suat Mamat, Ilhan Mansiz & Buhran Sargun – 3 goals
Ukraine: Andriy Shevchenko – 2 goals
United Arab Emirates: Jumaa Ali Thani & Khalid Ismail – 1 goal
Uruguay: Oscar Miguez – 8 goals
USA: Landon Donovan – 5 goals
Uzbekistan: Abbosbek Fayzullaev & Eldor Shomurodov – 1 goal
Wales: Ivor Allchurch – 2 goals
Tosin Oyediran is a journalist at Punch Newspapers with over eight years of professional experience in reporting and storytelling. He is known for conducting incisive interviews and producing compelling human-angle stories that bring clarity and depth to the news. Tosin covers a broad range of beats including politics, health, advocacy, sports, and entertainment, with a strong focus on people-centred reporting. His work reflects firsthand newsroom experience, editorial insight, and a commitment to accurate, engaging, and trustworthy journalism.
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Source: The Punch
