MEN'S ALL TIME TOP GOAL SCORERS WORLD CUP QUALIFICATIONS

• Aug 21, 2022
• History Statistics

Picture : Carlos Ruiz leads the ranking !

Men's All-time top goal-scorers in the World Cup qualification

As FIFA eventually canceled the game Brazil vs Argentina that was supposed to end the World Cup 2022 qualification, it's time to publish the historical list of top goal-scorers in the qualifying stages of the competition.
Carlos Ruiz (Guatemala) remains the record holder in this category. He took part in 5 World Cup qualifying campaigns, from 2002 to 2018 edition, and has scored 39 goals total. 
It’s worth noting that Ruiz was very consistent throughout his activity in these tournaments: in every one of 5 editions he scored minimum 6 and maximum 10 goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo, who also has 5 qualifying campaigns behind, collected 36 goals, as many as Ali Daei. They two share 2nd position in the ranking (CR7 is placed higher due to tie-breaker: fewer games).
In total, 19 players in the whole history reached 20-goal mark. They all played in 1990s years and later (when the number of games played by team in a qualifying tournament significantly increased). 

	BEST GOAL-SCORERS	IN WORLD CUP			QUALIFICATION
	Player	Country	Goals	Games	Editions (Goals)
1	Carlos Ruiz	Guatemala	39	47	2002(8), 2006(10), 2010(6), 2014(6), 2018(9)
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	36	47	2006(7), 2010(0), 2014(8), 2018(15), 2022(6)
3	Ali Daei	Iran	36	51	1994(7), 1998(9), 2002(11), 2006(9)
4	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	30	37	2010(2), 2014(3), 2018(16), 2022(9)
5	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	29	62	2010(5), 2014(11), 2018(5), 2022(8)
6	Karim Bagheri	Iran	28	32	1994(0), 1998(19), 2002(8), 2006(0), 2010(1)
7	Lionel Messi	Argentina	28	61	2006(0), 2010(4), 2014(10), 2018(7), 2022(7)
8	Kazuyoshi Miura	Japan	27	26	1994(13), 1998(14)
9	Andriy Shevchenko	Ukraine	26	40	1998(4), 2002(10), 2006(6), 2010(6)
10	Carlos Pavon	Honduras	25	37	1998(2), 2002(15), 2006(1), 2010(7)
	Tim Cahill	Australia	25	37	2006(7), 2010(4), 2014(3), 2018(11)
	Edin Dzeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	25	37	2010(9), 2014(10), 2018(5), 2022(1)
13	Jared Borgetti	Mexico	23	24	2002(6), 2006(14), 2010(3)
14	Ali Mabkhout	UAE	23	30	2018(9), 2022(14)
15	Marcelo Martins	Bolivia	22	58	2010(7), 2014(4), 2018(1), 2022(10)
16	Sardar Azmoun	Iran	21	28	2018(11), 2022(10)
17	Paulo Wanchope	Costa Rica	21	37	1998(6), 2002(7), 2006(8)
18	Archie Thompson	Australia	20	16	2002(16), 2006(2), 2010(0), 2014(2)
19	Stern John	Trinidad and Tobago	20	49	1998(3), 2002(3), 2006(12), 2010(2), 2014(0)