The trail in direction of the 2026 World Cup finals is properly and really underway. Together with the three host nations – the US, Mexico and Canada – 18 nations have already booked their place at subsequent summer season’s showpiece occasion.
The event, held throughout three nations for the very first time, is, fairly actually, the most important but. Forty-eight groups will battle it out for soccer biggest prize, expanded from 32 groups on the 2022 version in Qatar.
The total listing of certified groups is not going to be identified till the inter-confederation play-offs resolve the ultimate two spots in March, nevertheless, the draw will likely be held a number of months earlier on December 5, 2025 in Washington, DC.
So, with 30 spots nonetheless up for grabs, and forward of the upcoming spherical of internationals, 101GreatGoals is having a look on the high scorers in males’s World Cup qualifying.
Who tops the listing?
=1st) Carlos Ruiz (39 targets in 47 appearances)
Nicely actually, two gamers at present share the top-spot. And whereas it’s most likely truthful to say that, in terms of soccer, Guatemala don’t typically place excessive on many lists, in Carlos Ruiz they’ve a participant whose World Cup qualifying purpose file is but to be bettered.
Nicknamed ‘The Fish’, Ruiz bagged a vastly spectacular 39 targets in simply 47 World Cup qualifying matches. He twice retired from worldwide soccer solely to return shortly after, and likewise represented his nation on the 2000 Futsal World Championships.
He spent a lot of his membership profession within the MLS and represented Guatemala throughout 5 completely different World Cup qualifying campaigns from 2002 to 2018, though they by no means reached the finals.
=1st) Cristiano Ronaldo (39 targets in 49 appearances)
From a relative unknown in Ruiz to maybe essentially the most recognisable soccer participant on the earth, it’s hardly stunning to see Cristiano Ronaldo’s title seem on the high of any goalscoring listing.
And may the 40-year-old, who has an astonishing 141 targets in 223 appearances for Portugal, discover the web towards both Eire or Hungary over the following seven days, he’ll turn out to be the outright record-holder.
And few may begrudge that accolade going to a participant with such drive and relentlessness within the pursuit of greatness. Ought to Portugal make it to subsequent summer season’s finals, it’ll certainly be Ronaldo’s final shot at soccer’s final prize.
third) Lionel Messi (36 targets in 72 appearances)
It’s maybe solely becoming that on any listing the place Ronaldo seems, Lionel Messi must also characteristic, given the duo’s seemingly symbiotic affiliation. However whereas holders Argentina have already booked their place on the 2026 World Cup, there nonetheless stays query marks over whether or not arguably their biggest ever participant will likely be on the airplane.
Nonetheless, Messi’s file in World Cup qualifying – one purpose each different sport – makes for sometimes spectacular studying. The Inter Miami participant, nonetheless going sturdy at 38, has 32 targets and 17 assists throughout all membership competitions this season, and is tied with Norway’s Erling Haaland and Jordan Ayew of Ghana for essentially the most purpose involvements in 2026 World Cup qualifying to this point with 11.
4th) Ali Daei (35 targets in 51 appearances)
For greater than a short time, Iran’s Ali Daei topped the listing of all-time male goalscorers in worldwide soccer. In 2004, he grew to become the primary male participant to achieve 100 worldwide targets and stays among the many high 50 most capped gamers.
It’s not precisely a shock, due to this fact, to see his title seem excessive on the listing of World Cup qualifying targets. Daei performed at two World Cup finals with Iran, in 1998 and 2006, however failed to seek out the web in both event.
fifth) Robert Lewandowski (32 targets in 41 appearances)
At membership stage, Robert Lewandowski has scored targets wherever he has gone. And so it solely appears logical that such a prolific goal-getter would prolong that return on the worldwide stage.
He’s the Polish males’s staff’s all-time main goalscorer by a long way, having netted almost twice as many because the participant in second place, and his tally in World Cup qualifying makes for respectable studying.
Such is the significance of the 37-year-old, that when he introduced earlier this yr that he wouldn’t play for his nation whereas the supervisor, Michal Probierz, was in cost after being stripped of the captaincy, Probierz promptly resigned from his place only a few days later.
