The trail in direction of the 2026 World Cup finals is effectively and actually 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 match, held throughout three international locations 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 record of certified groups is not going to be identified till the inter-confederation play-offs resolve the ultimate two spots in March, nonetheless, the draw might 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 looking on the prime scorers in males’s World Cup qualifying.
Who tops the record?
=1st) Carlos Ruiz (39 objectives in 47 appearances)
Effectively the truth is, two gamers at present share the top-spot. And whereas it’s most likely honest to say that, in relation to soccer, Guatemala don’t typically place excessive on many lists, in Carlos Ruiz they’ve a participant whose World Cup qualifying aim file is but to be bettered.
Nicknamed ‘The Fish’, Ruiz bagged a vastly spectacular 39 objectives 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 totally different World Cup qualifying campaigns from 2002 to 2018, though they by no means reached the finals.
=1st) Cristiano Ronaldo (39 objectives in 49 appearances)
From a relative unknown in Ruiz to maybe essentially the most recognisable soccer participant on the earth, it’s hardly shocking to see Cristiano Ronaldo’s title seem on the prime of any goalscoring record.
And will the 40-year-old, who has an astonishing 141 objectives in 223 appearances for Portugal, discover the online towards both Eire or Hungary over the following seven days, he’ll turn out to be the outright record-holder.
And few might 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 should absolutely be Ronaldo’s final shot at soccer’s final prize.
third) Lionel Messi (36 objectives in 72 appearances)
It’s maybe solely becoming that on any record the place Ronaldo seems, Lionel Messi must also function, 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 might be on the airplane.
Nonetheless, Messi’s file in World Cup qualifying – one aim each different recreation – makes for sometimes spectacular studying. The Inter Miami participant, nonetheless going sturdy at 38, has 32 objectives 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 aim involvements in 2026 World Cup qualifying to date with 11.
4th) Ali Daei (35 objectives in 51 appearances)
For greater than a short time, Iran’s Ali Daei topped the record of all-time male goalscorers in worldwide soccer. In 2004, he grew to become the primary male participant to achieve 100 worldwide objectives and stays among the many prime 50 most capped gamers.
It’s not precisely a shock, subsequently, to see his title seem excessive on the record of World Cup qualifying objectives. Daei performed at two World Cup finals with Iran, in 1998 and 2006, however failed to seek out the online in both match.
fifth) Robert Lewandowski (32 objectives in 41 appearances)
At membership stage, Robert Lewandowski has scored objectives wherever he has gone. And so it solely appears logical that such a prolific goal-getter would lengthen that return on the worldwide stage.
He’s the Polish males’s staff’s all-time main goalscorer by far, having netted almost twice as many because the participant in second place, and his tally in World Cup qualifying makes for first rate 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.
