Scoring in a World Cup final is one of the rarest achievements in football. Across more than 20 finals, only a handful of players have managed it more than once, and just one has scored four.
The final is the match that draws the most attention of all, watched by hundreds of millions and pored over by anyone following the World Cup final odds in the days beforehand.
The list of leading scorers in World Cup finals stretches from the 1950s to the present day and takes in some of the biggest names the game has produced. Scoring once on that stage is enough to be remembered, so doing it repeatedly puts a player in rare company.
In this article, we look at the five players with the most goals in World Cup finals.
Kylian Mbappe, four goals
Kylian Mbappe is the all-time leading scorer in World Cup finals with four. He scored once in the 2018 final as France beat Croatia 4-2, then produced a hat-trick in the 2022 final against Argentina. That match finished 3-3 before Argentina won on penalties, so Mbappe ended up on the losing side despite his treble. He still claimed the Golden Boot as the tournament’s top scorer.
Geoff Hurst, three goals
Geoff Hurst was the first, and for over 50 years only, player to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final. His three goals carried England to a 4-2 win over West Germany at Wembley in 1966, the nation’s only World Cup title. One of his extra-time goals, which came down off the underside of the crossbar, remains one of the most argued-over in the game’s history. His tally stood as the record for a single final until Mbappe matched it in 2022.
Vava, three goals
Vava holds a record that is often overlooked: he was the first player to score in two separate World Cup finals. He netted twice as Brazil beat Sweden 5-2 in 1958, then added another in the 3-1 win over Czechoslovakia in 1962, with both tournaments ending in Brazilian triumph. Scoring in a final remains the rarest feat of all, which is part of why the match attracts so much football betting odds attention every four years.
Pele, three goals
Pele scored in two finals 12 years apart. As a 17-year-old, he scored twice in the 1958 final against Sweden, becoming the youngest player to score in the showpiece. He then found the net again in 1970, when Brazil beat Italy 4-1 to win a third world title. Pele is the only player to win the World Cup three times, and his goals in finals were a part of that.
Zinedine Zidane, three goals
Zinedine Zidane delivered on the biggest stage in both of his World Cup finals. He scored twice, both with his head, as France beat Brazil 3-0 in 1998 to win the trophy on home soil. Eight years later, Zidane scored a penalty against Italy in the 2006 final, though that night ended in a shootout defeat and his sending-off. Few midfielders have shaped finals the way he did.
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Scoring in a World Cup final guarantees a place in the history books, and these five have done it more than anyone. With the next final on the horizon, the chase to join them goes on.
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