World Cup leading goalscorers of all time: Messi surpasses Pele, Mbappe joins elite list

The last World Cup final lived up to its billing as Argentina and France played out one of the greatest football matches of all time at the Lusail Iconic Stadium in Qatar. The two stars of the show took centre stage too as Lionel Messi scored twice and Kylian Mbappe went one better with a hat-trick, just the second ever in a men's World Cup final. However, it was Messi who claimed the biggest prize as he finally got his hands on the World Cup trophy, Argentina winning 4-2 in a penalty shootout after a classic 3-3 draw over 120 minutes. Messi's two goals took him up to 13 at World Cups in total, surpassing Brazilian legend Pele and moving level with France's Just Fontaine as the joint-fourth highest scorers in the tournament's history. Mbappe, meanwhile, became only the 14th player to reach double figures in World Cups and has already scored the same number of World Cup goals as Pele - and more in World Cup finals than any other player. The Frenchman now needs just five more future World Cup goals to become the all-time leading scorer, having claimed the Golden Boot with his eight strikes in Qatar. Here, Sports Mole takes a look at the standings in the all-time World Cup goalscoring list.

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1. Miroslav Klose (Germany)

Goals: 16 Appearances: 24 Ratio: 0.67 Tournaments: 2002, 2006, 2010, 2014

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2. Ronaldo (Brazil)

Goals: 15 Appearances: 19 Ratio: 0.79 Tournaments: 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006

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3. Gerd Muller (West Germany)

Goals: 14 Appearances: 13 Ratio: 1.08 Tournaments: 1970, 1974

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4. Just Fontaine (France)

Goals: 13 Appearances: 6 Ratio: 2.17 Tournaments: 1958

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5. Lionel Messi (Argentina)

Goals: 13 Appearances: 26 Ratio: 0.50 Tournaments: 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022

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6. Pele (Brazil)

Goals: 12 Appearances: 14 Ratio: 0.86 Tournaments: 1958, 1962, 1966, 1970

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7. Kylian Mbappe (France)

Goals: 12 Appearances: 14 Ratio: 0.86 Tournaments: 2018, 2022

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8. Sandor Kocsis (Hungary)

Goals: 11 Appearances: 5 Ratio: 2.20 Tournaments: 1954

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9. Jurgen Klinsmann (West Germany & Germany)

Goals: 11 Appearances: 17 Ratio: 0.65 Tournaments: 1990, 1994, 1998

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10. Helmut Rahn (West Germany)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 10 Ratio: 1.00 Tournaments: 1954, 1958

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11. Gary Lineker (England)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 12 Ratio: 0.83 Tournaments: 1986, 1990

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12. Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 12 Ratio: 0.83 Tournaments: 1994, 1998, 2002

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13. Teofilo Cubillas (Peru)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 13 Ratio: 0.77 Tournaments: 1970, 1978, 1982

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14. Thomas Muller (Germany)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 19 Ratio: 0.53 Tournaments: 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022

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15. Grzegorz Lato (Poland)

Goals: 10 Appearances: 20 Ratio: 0.50 Tournaments: 1974, 1978, 1982

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