A look back at the top goal scorers in the FIFA World Cup’s history, littered with some of the greats of football.
Published On 18 May 2026
Scoring goals at the World Cup remains one of the most eagerly awaited moments in a footballer’s career, and come June 11, some of the best strikers will get a chance to add their names to the goal-scoring charts for the tournament.
The forwards with the most goals by July 19 will walk away with the Golden Boot award and find themselves in the company of the sport’s all-time greats.
Here is a list of its Golden Boot winners over the years:
- 1930: Guillermo Stabile (Argentina) – eight goals
- 1934: Oldrich Nejedly (Czech Republic) – five goals
- 1938: Leonidas (Brazil) – seven goals
- 1950: Ademir (Brazil) – eight goals
- 1954: Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) – 11 goals
- 1958: Just Fontaine (France) – 13 goals
- 1962: Florian Albert (Hungary), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Garrincha (Brazil), Vava (Brazil), Leonel Sanchez (Chile), Drazan Jerkovoch (Yugoslavia) – four goals
- 1966: Eusebio (Portugal) – nine goals
- 1970: Gerd Muller (Germany) – 10 goals
- 1974: Grzegorz Lato (Poland) – seven goals
- 1978: Mario Kempes (Argentina) – six goals
- 1982: Paolo Rossi (Italy) – six goals
- 1986: Gary Lineker (England) – six goals
- 1990: Salvatore Schillaci (Italy) – six goals
- 1994: Oleg Salenko (Russia), Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria) – six goals
- 1998: Davor Suker (Croatia) – six goals
- 2002: Ronaldo (Brazil) – eight goals
- 2006: Miroslav Klose (Germany) – five goals
- 2010: Thomas Muller (Germany) – five goals
- 2014: James Rodríguez (Colombia) – six goals
- 2018: Harry Kane (England) – six goals
- 2022: Kylian Mbappe (France) – eight goals
