Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe have drawn clear of Miroslav Klose's all-time World Cup goalscoring record.
The German forward featured at four World Cups, finishing runner-up in 2002, third in both 2006 and 2010 before finally lifting the trophy when defeating Argentina in the 2014 final.
Klose netted 16 times across 24 appearances at the tournament, scoring one hat-trick against Saudi Arabia in 2002.
He had been holding the record outright for 12 years, however, he has now been overtaken by Messi and Mbappe whose exploits this summer put them on 19 and 18 respectively.
Messi -- at long last a World Cup winner in 2022 -- entered the most recent tournament alongside Just Fontaine in terms of goals but his maiden World Cup treble took him beyond Mbappe, Gerd Muller and Ronaldo in one fell swoop to level Klose.
The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner hasn't stopped there and is now Argentina's youngest and oldest World Cup goalscorer. His opener against Cape Verde was his sixth goal of the tournament and took his overall tally to 20.
Mbappe himself has also passed Klose and will fancy his chances of holding the outright record on his own when he eventually ends his career. The 26-year-old's 18 goals have arrived in just 18 World Cup games.
German great Muller is also on 14 goals, coming in just 13 games whilst Ronaldo accrued his 15-strong tally in 19 matches; leading Brazil to World Cup success in 2002.
Top Goalscorers in World Cup history
- Lionel Messi - 20
- Kylian Mbappe - 18
- Miroslav Klose - 16
- Ronaldo - 15
- Gerd Muller - 14
- Harry Kane - 13
- Just Fontaine - 13
- Pele - 12
- Sandor Kocsis - 11
- Jurgen Klinsmann - 11
- Helmut Rahn - 10
- Gary Lineker - 10
- Gabriel Batistuta - 10
- Teofilo Cubillas - 10
- Thomas Muller - 10
- Grzegorz Lato - 10
- Cristiano Ronaldo - 10
- Ademir - 9
- Eusebio - 9
- Christian Vieri - 9
- Vava - 9
- David Villa - 9
- Paolo Rossi - 9
- Jairzinho - 9
- Roberto Baggio - 9
- Karl-Heinz Rummenigge - 9
- Uwe Seeler - 9
