Klose hopes ‘genius’ Messi breaks his World Cup scoring record

Former Germany star Miroslav Klose expects his World Cup goalscoring record to fall in 2026 and hopes Lionel Messi will be the one to break it. Klose is the top scorer at the World Cup, with 16 goals in 24 matches – all 16 goals were scored from inside the box, including seven headers. Despite not scoring in the two finals he played (2002, 2014), five of his goals came in the knockout stages. His last goal in the tournament came in Germany's 7-1 win against Brazil in the 2014 semi-finals.

His closest challenger is Messi, who has netted 13 goals in his record 26 appearances at the tournament, and he will have that record in his sights as he prepares to play in a sixth World Cup. The Argentina captain recorded the joint-most goal involvements at the 2022 World Cup (10 – seven goals, three assists) as he led the team to the trophy. But he is not the only player who will want to have his name beside this particular record, with Kylian Mbappe, who has scored more goals (12) and recorded more goal involvements (14) than any other player across the previous two World Cups, including a hat-trick in the 2022 final.

Klose took the record off Ronaldo Nazario in 2014, but he does not expect to still be the leader in this metric come the end of the 2026 tournament. "I expect my record to be broken at this World Cup," he told Suddeutsche Zeitung. "This is an expanded edition; there are more matches and therefore more opportunities to score. Both Messi and Mbappe will go far, and that is absolutely fine; the record was always going to be broken eventually. If it happens, I would be pleased if it were Messi. I have always been a huge fan of his; he is a genius."

Argentina get their World Cup campaign underway on June 16 against Algeria in Group J, with France kicking off against Senegal.

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