Qatar 2022 | Neither Cristiano Ronaldo, nor Messi: The most lethal strikers in FIFA World Cup history

There is no more desired sensation in soccer than a goal. It can be said that the ball exists for that, to be embedded in the goal. If we add to this the fact of scoring a goal in the most important tournament of this sport, that is, the FIFA World Cup, the experience borders on the sublime.

Qatar 2022 will be attended by players whose relationship with the goal is one of absolute complicity. Undoubtedly, the hope of fans to see a love story between the ball and the net is deposited in the cleats of stars like Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, but also in stars like Neymar Jr, Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Sadio Mané.

However, a distinction must be made: it is different to score a lot of goals without any context, than to score goals with the least amount of games played. The species that achieves this is recognized as the most lethal breed of strikers in soccer. These individuals are key to winning games and tournaments; in a FIFA World Cup, such as the one that will be played in Qatar 2022, their value is maximized.

The list of Miroslav Klose as the top scorer in the history of the FIFA World Cup is now democratized. It also includes players such as Thomas Muller, David Villa, Diego Maradona... and even Cristiano Ronaldo. However, it is worth mentioning that none of them are among the most lethal scorers, unbelievably.

In order to discover the most effective attackers with the ability to cause damage to their National Team's opponents, a mathematical formula is used: divide their number of goals scored by the number of matches they have played in the FIFA World Cup. The goal-scoring average is then obtained, which indicates a striker's lethality.

The greatest example of lethality in the history of the World Cup. The