WORLD CUP RECORDS (Part 18) - PLAYERS WITH MOST OPENING GOALS
Picture : Ronaldo, Vieri, Villa - the leader trio !
Players with most opening goals: Christian Vieri, Ronaldo and David Villa
*Three players in the World Cup history have opened the score in 6 different games each. The first to reach this number was Christian Vieri in 2002. Ronaldo equaled him at the next edition and David Villa became the record co-holder in 2014.
*From the players with the chances to play in Qatar, Thomas Müller is closest to the recordsmen; he has 5 openers at his tally now.
*Salvatore Schillaci is the only player in the history to score 5 opening goals at a single World Cup edition (1990). From 6 goals he scored overall, all but one were openers.
| PLAYERS WITH MOST | OPENING GOALS | AT | WORLD CUPS |
| Player | Country | Games | Breakdown |
| Christian Vieri | Italy | 6 | 1998(3), 2002(3) |
| Ronaldo | Brazil | 6 | 1998(2), 2002(3), 2006(1) |
| David Villa | Spain | 6 | 2006(1), 2010(4), 2014(1) |
| Grzegorz Lato | Poland | 5 | 1974(4), 1978(1) |
| Paolo Rossi | Italy | 5 | 1978(2), 1982(3) |
| Salvatore Schillaci | Italy | 5 | 1990(5) |
| Thomas Müller | Germany | 5 | 2010(2), 2014(3) |