“Who has scored the most goals at a World Cup finals without winning the Golden Boot?” asks Sam Edwards.
With Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé already on six goals and leading an elite bunch in the 2026 race, we may well see the men’s record broken this summer. As it stands, Messi shares the record – as if he needs another one – with Brazil great Jairzinho.
In 2022, Messi scored seven goals and was leading the standings midway through the final – but Kylian Mbappé’s hat-trick took him to eight goals and the gilded shoe. Still, Messi got the Golden Ball for best player … and the World Cup trophy. As for Jairzinho, his seven goals in Brazil’s surge to the title was not enough to deny Gerd Müller, who scored 10 (including two hat-tricks) for third-placed West Germany.
The 1954 edition had the best goals-per-game ratio (5.38) of any men’s World Cup, so it’s to be expected that three players – Germany’s Max Morlock, Austria’s Erich Probst and Swiss striker Josef Hügi – scored six each, but finished five behind the runaway winner, Hungary goal machine Sandor Kocsis. In 1958, Pelé and Helmut Rahn (six goals each) were seven behind Just Fontaine, who banged in a ridiculous 13.
Unluckiest of all is Rob Rensenbrink, whose stoppage-time shot in the 1978 final took a freakish bounce and hit a post. Had he scored, Mario Kempes would not have had the chance to score an extra-time winner, so the Dutchman would have claimed the Golden Boot with six goals to Kempes’s five – and won the World Cup to boot.
As for the Women’s World Cup, Heidi Mohr netted seven goals for Germany in 1991 but needed, well, a few more to catch US hot-shot Michelle Akers-Stahl’s total of 10. In 2007, Abby Wambach and Norway’s Ragnhild Gulbrandsen scored six apiece, but were pipped to the prize by Brazil legend Marta, with seven goals.
Finally, on to the 2019 edition in France, where American star Alex Morgan and England striker Ellen White topped the chart with six goals (Morgan led the assist count 3-0) before the final. Morgan was fouled in the area, and Megan Rapinoe scored the penalty to claim the Golden Boot with six goals and three assists in fewer minutes. If our maths is right, if Morgan had set up Rapinoe to score directly, she would have taken top spot with her fourth assist of the tournament.
Here’s the list of the highest-scoring Golden Boot dodgers at men’s and women’s World Cup finals:
Men’s World Cup
Seven goals
Jairzinho (Brazil, 1970)
Lionel Messi (Argentina, 2022)
Six goals
Josef Hügi (Switzerland, 1954)
Max Morlock (West Germany, 1954)
Erich Probst (Austria, 1954)
Pelé (Brazil, 1958)
Helmut Rahn (West Germany, 1958)
Helmut Haller (West Germany, 1966)
Five goals
Pedro Cea (Uruguay, 1930)
Gyorgy Sarosi (Hungary, 1938)
Gyula Zsengeller (Hungary, 1938)
Silvio Piola (Italy, 1938)
Óscar Míguez (Uruguay, 1950)
Johan Neeskens (Netherlands, 1974)
Andrzej Szarmach (Poland, 1974)
Rob Rensenbrink (Netherlands, 1978)
Teófilo Cubillas (Peru, 1978)
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge (West Germany, 1982)
Diego Maradona (Argentina, 1986)
Careca (Brazil, 1986)
Emilio Butragueño (Spain, 1986)
Tomas Skuhravy (Czechoslovakia, 1990)
Kennet Andersson (Sweden, 1994)
Romário (Brazil, 1994)
Roberto Baggio (Italy, 1994)
Jürgen Klinsmann (Germany, 1994)
Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina, 1998)
Christian Vieri (Italy, 1998)
Miroslav Klose (Germany, 2002)
Rivaldo (Brazil, 2002)
Diego Forlan* (Uruguay, 2010)
Wesley Sneijder* (Netherlands, 2010)
David Villa* (Spain, 2010)
* Same number of goals as Thomas Müller, who won the Golden Boot, but he was awarded it because he had more assists.
Women’s World Cup
Seven goals
Heidi Mohr (Germany, 1991)
Six goals
Abby Wambach (USA, 2007)
Ragnhild Gulbrandsen (Norway, 2007)
Carli Lloyd* (USA, 2015)
Ellen White* (England, 2019)
Alex Morgan* (USA, 2019)
Five goals
Hege Riise (Norway, 1995)
Anja Mittag (Germany, 2015)
Sam Kerr (Australia, 2019)
* Same number of goals as the Golden Boot winner (Celia Sasic in 2015, Megan Rapinoe in 2019) but fewer assists.
Pointless World Cup teams
“With Canada and Curaçao joining countries with point(s) at the World Cup, which countries have been, and are as bad as a UK Eurovision entry, still on nul points?” wonders Roger Kirkby.
Dick Advocaat’s Curaçao side got a point on their World Cup debut, but other 2026 newcomers weren’t so successful. Jordan and Uzbekistan both lost all three of their group games, joining a select group of 10 teams who have been to the World Cup finals and failed to register a point.
It could be worse: three other teams made their second pointless World Cup finals appearance this summer. Haiti (who first qualified in 1974), Iraq (1986) and Panama (2018) have all played six, lost six at the big dance – but one team sits below them.
That dubious honour goes to El Salvador, who lost all three matches on their debut in 1970, and were even worse in 1982 – famously going down 10-1 to Hungary in their opener before two much more creditable defeats to Belgium (1-0) and Argentina (2-0). Still, an overall goal difference of -21 leaves La Selecta top/bottom of the overall table.
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Teams without a point at a men’s World Cup:
El Salvador (six games, -21 goal difference)
Haiti (six games, -18 GD)
Iraq (six games, -14 GD)
Panama (six games, -9 GD)
China (three games in 2002, -9 GD)
Uzbekistan (three games, -9 GD)
UAE (three games in 1990, -5 GD)
Indonesia* (three games in 1938, -6 GD)
Togo (three games in 2006, -5 GD)
Jordan (three games, -5 GD)
*known as Dutch East Indies at the time
Haiti and Panama also feature among the pointless teams in Women’s World Cup history. Both lost three games out of three at the 2023 edition, alongside fellow debutants Vietnam. Equatorial Guinea (2011), Ivory Coast and Ecuador (both 2015) have also left a finals empty-handed, but to date no team has gone without at least a draw in two appearances.
Drubbings in debut wins
“Canada recorded their first men’s World Cup win with a 6-0 thumping of Qatar,” writes Chris Carter. “Has a team ever recorded their first win at a World Cup (or other major tournament) with a bigger margin of victory?”
Dirk Maas (and a few others) wrote in to point out that Turkey made their debut in 1954 – and defeated South Korea 7-0 in their second game. Turkey lost their opener 4-1 to West Germany, then had to face them again in a playoff – where they slipped to a 7-2 defeat. As we said, there were a lot of goals at the 1954 World Cup.
Pawan Mathur adds a couple more examples: “Italy’s first-ever World Cup victory, in their first-ever match, ended in a 7-1 win over the USA in 1934. If we consider Russia as separate from the USSR, they defeated Cameroon 6-1 in 1994 to earn their first win.”
Knowledge archive
“What’s the longest gap between World Cup appearances for a player?” wondered R Reisman in June 2014. “Has anyone ever missed two tournaments and then come back to play again?”
Yes, is the quick answer. The most obvious and frequently-suggested by our good readers is Michael Laudrup, who appeared in the great Denmark side of 1986 (which, as it happens, you can read all about in this little tome), then had to wait 12 years before he could play in another World Cup, as Denmark failed to qualify in 1990 and 1994. However, he was still around for France 1998, and his last game in that tournament happened to be his final ever game of professional football, also making him a candidate for the first question in this week’s Knowledge.
“Niall Quinn was a member of the Republic of Ireland squad at Italia 90,” writes Philip in Dublin. “As he was injured in 1994 and RoI failed to qualify for 1998, Quinn didn’t see the World Cup again until Japan and South Korea in 2002.”
Doug Coyle points out a similar gap between the Costa Rica forward Hernan Medford’s first appearance in 1990 and his last in 2002, but Marcelo Leal has perhaps the definitive suggestion: “Colombian goalkeeper Faryd Mondragón was part of the squad in 1994 (did not play) and 1998 (three appearances) and now, at age 43, is part of the 23-man squad called by José Pekerman. If he manages to stay fit until their first game in Brazil, it will be 20 years since he was first part of a WC squad and 16 since his first WC match.”
Can you help?
“The knockout phase of the World Cup began with South Africa (world No 60) against Canada (world No 30) – a combined Fifa ranking of 90. Have there been other games featuring teams with such a low combined ranking?” – asks Lino Di Lorenzo.
“I notice that Chelsea are extremely well represented at this World Cup from a managerial perspective, boasting four former head coaches (Tuchel, Pochettino, Ancelotti, Potter) and two former players (Clarke and Deschamps). Has any club side every been so well represented at a finals?” asks Jim Sanders.”
“Senegal ended the group stage with a record of won one, lost two but a goal difference of +2. What’s the highest goal difference a team has achieved while losing more games than winning in a group – and has this scenario ever happened in a domestic league?” asks Mark Payne.
“Canada are one of the co-hosts of this World Cup, but played South Africa in Los Angeles, over 2000km from home soil,” notes Pete Franklin. “Has a host country of a tournament ever played outside their own borders before? And if so, were any further away from home?”
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