It is one of football's oldest and most famous records. In 1958, France striker Just Fontaine scored 13 goals in only six matches to set the bar incredibly high for the most goals at a World Cup.
To put that in perspective, only two other men in history have managed double figures – Hungary's Sandor Kocsis (11) in 1954, and German poacher Gerd Muller (10) in 1970.
Since Muller's haul in Mexico, the most anyone has managed is eight, a total achieved by Brazil's Ronaldo in 2002 and France's Kylian Mbappe in Qatar four years ago.
However, the 2026 tournament has started with a glut of goals, and with them being scored more quickly than ever before.
After Algeria beat Jordan 2-1 on Monday night, a total of 132 goals had been scored across 44 matches at a rather satisfying rate of precisely three goals per game. That is comfortably above the rate of 2.69 per game witnessed at the 2022 tournament.
Notably, though, the big hitters have really shown up. Lionel Messi has already scored five in just two games to become the World Cup's all-time top scorer on 18 goals, while Mbappe and Erling Haaland have four each. Prolific England striker Harry Kane has two, and will strongly fancy adding to his tally against Ghana and Panama in the Three Lions' remaining group games.
So, could Fontaine's record really be in danger for the first time in decades?
Who was Just Fontaine?
Fontaine was born in Marrakesh in 1933 to a French father and a Spanish mother and took his first steps towards a professional career in Morocco.
His performances for Casablanca club Union Sportive Marocaine alerted scouts at Nice, who signed him in 1953. He hit the ground running on the Cote d'Azur and made his debut for the France national team later that year.
His goalscoring record for Les Bleus was exceptional, eventually finishing with 30 goals in just 21 games.
Thirteen of them came at the 1958 World Cup in Sweden. Fontaine opened with a hat-trick as France thrashed Paraguay 7-3 in their first group game. He added two more in a 3-2 defeat to Yugoslavia and another strike in a 2-1 win over Scotland.
He bagged another brace in a 4-0 quarter-final victory over Northern Ireland, and was also on target as France lost 5-2 to a Pele-inspired Brazil in the semi-finals.
That took his tally to nine, and he then added four more in a 6-3 hammering of West Germany in the third-place play-off. All 13 of his goals came from open play, with his revered teammate Raymond Kopa on penalty duties.
Sadly, Fontaine was forced to retire at just 28 because of a recurring leg injury. He went into coaching and had spells in charge of Paris Saint-Germain and Toulouse, as well as the France and Morocco national teams. He passed away in 2023, aged 89.
Could Fontaine's record finally fall in 2026?
It is one of those benchmarks you don't expect to ever see beaten in a modern context, but the expanded 48-team format has created the conditions for the world's leading forwards to make a run at it.
For all the talk of competitive action, there have already been more drubbings at this tournament than we are used to seeing. There are teams that the best players can punish, and that has already come to pass. There's also the bonus of an extra game in the new format, with the potential for eight matches in total should a team go all the way.
Messi has five goals from group games against Algeria and Austria, and still has a match against Jordan to come.
Mbappe's goalscoring record at World Cups is phenomenal, with the French star boasting 16 goals in 16 games at the finals. With Les Bleus likely to go deep, he will at least be confident of beating his eight-goal haul from Qatar.
Haaland is firing at a rate of two goals per game, but Norway's long-term prospects don't look as strong as those of Argentina or France.
A return of 13 or 14 goals in eight games is a huge ask, even for the world's elite goalscorers, so it would be a surprise to see Fontaine's record fall in 2026. That said, his mark is not insurmountable, and with the world's best players in lethal form, it's a fair bet somebody will hit double figures this summer and go very close.
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