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With the 2022 FIFA World Cup around the corner, soccer (or football) fans have their eyes set on how their favorite teams and players will perform.
But history shows that some players, and teams, are far more proficient in goals and wins than others. After all, with only 32 teams competing and the field quickly whittling down, there aren’t many chances for players to make their mark.
Who are history’s most prolific goal scorers? This series of graphics from Pablo Alvarez breaks down the top goal scorers in FIFA World Cup history, and their goals per appearances.
Since the inaugural World Cup tournament in 1930, there have been 21 tournaments held across 17 countries.
At the first World Cup in Uruguay, 13 national teams competed for the championship trophy. The tournament then included 16 teams until 1982, when it expanded to 24 teams. Most recently, FIFA expanded to the current 32-team format starting in 1998.
And across all these tournaments, just 13 players have scored 10 or more goals:
The record for the most goals scored at the World Cup currently belongs to Germany’s Miroslav Klose with 16 goals across 4 tournaments, including one championship in 2014.
In fact, Germany had the most 10+ goal scorers of any country with five, including the only still-active player Thomas Müller.
Other well-known legends on the list include Ronaldo (not to be confused with Cristiano Ronaldo) and Pelé from Brazil, and Gary Lineker from England. But the title for the most goals scored in just one tournament goes to France’s Just Fontaine, who scored an incredible 13 goals in six matches in 1958.
Because of a diverse field and an intense qualification process, some teams play more games than others. Therefore, the above list skews towards teams and players with many caps.
So Alvarez also charted how World Cup goal scorers compare on a per-match basis. Unfortunately, FIFA match reports only fully tracked appearances and substitutions from 1970 onwards, though this still gives a clear picture of some of the world’s most effective (and least effective) goal scorers:
Again, the top goal scorers Klose and Ronaldo appear very prominently with 15+ goals, but other legends with a similar number of appearances like Maradona, Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo weren’t as successful on a per-match basis.
What happens when we take the top World Cup goal scorers with 5 or more goals from 1970 onwards and look at their goals/match rate?
Most players expectedly scored under one goal/match, but five players stand out:
With many players in Qatar 2022 vying for both the national championship and the Golden Boot, which is awarded to the tournament’s top goal scorer, the rankings are always ripe to change.
And future tournaments will likely offer more goal-scoring opportunities. The 2026 World Cup to be held in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico will be the first to feature 48 teams after FIFA voted to expand the tournament.
Which active players, or up-and-coming talents, will be next to climb the all-time goal scoring rankings?
This article was published as a part of Visual Capitalist’s Creator Program, which features data-driven visuals from some of our favorite Creators around the world.
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Athletes pull huge sums of money from their on-field and off-field contracts. Here we rank the top 50 highest-paid athletes in the world.
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The financial figures in sport are enormous. The highest-paid athletes in the world make tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions per year.
The global pandemic put a significant dent in the commercial aspect of many sports. Even though the teams and their owners earned significantly less during this period, individual athletes actually thrived.
According to the Forbes annual rankings of the world’s highest-paid athletes for 2021, the top 50 of them turned in a record-setting year and made nearly $2.8 billion in 12 months, beating 2019’s record total by more than $150 million.
This year’s list had a multitude of names making the big bucks. Here are some of the highlights:
MMA fighter Connor McGregor tops the list with a whopping $180 million earned in 2021. According to McGregor, this has been a long time coming, who in 2016 infamously boasted to soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo that he’d overtake him one day as sports’ highest-paid star.
Roger Federer’s on-field earnings for 2021 were a mere $0.03 million, but he still lands in the 7th spot. Recovering from a knee injury, Roger Federer made nearly all of his $90 million in earnings from sponsorships.
Naomi Osaka is the highest-paid female athlete on this list and the only one to crack the top 15. Over the last year, she won her second Australian and U.S. Open titles, while also receiving media attention for her stances on mental health and racial equality.
The highest on-field earning by any player was by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott who earned $97.5 million in 2020. In March of 2021, Prescott signed a four-year, $160 million contract extension with the Cowboys, with a $66 million signing bonus.
Seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton and newcomer and current world championship leader Max Verstappen are the only two from the sport of auto racing on the list.
Let’s take a look at the most notable numbers in this year’s list:
With contracts and endorsement deals growing bigger every year, the number of athletes breaking the $100 million mark will continue to increase.
While supermax contracts and weekly wages make the headlines, endorsement deals account for a significant portion of an athlete’s income. And that piece of the pie is growing steadily. The off-the-field earnings of the top 50 athletes reached $1.04 billion this year, compared with $556 million back in 2012.
If the last year has been any indication, socio-political messages and social media will likely play an essential part in how athletes are perceived and their endorsements are impacted as we go forward in the future.
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