Following Thursday’s FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™ group stage matches, below are the top 10 leading scorers in the tournament.
Brand Spur Nigeria recalls that Portugal defeated Ghana 3-2, while Brazil won 2-0 against Serbia.
With more goals expected to rain heavily at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022™, below are the top goal scorers as obtained from Goal.com
1. Bukayo Saka | England | 2 goals
Bukayo Saka opened his World Cup account in style with a brace against Iran. Two cracking finishes in each half from the winger helped England to a 6-2 victory in their opening match.
2. Olivier Giroud | France | 2 goals
Giroud’s brace against Australia helped France to victory in their opening match. He is also now the country’s joint-top goalscorer along with Thierry Henry and could overtake the former Arsenal player to make history soon.
3. Richarlison | Brazil | 2 goals
Richarlison started as the number 9 in Brazil’s four-man attack, but couldn’t impose himself in the game as much, thanks to the resilience of the Serbian defence. However, his goal off the rebound off the Serbian keeper after Vini. Jr’s goal put the Brazilians 1-0 ahead in the game.
For his second goal, it was a ridiculous strike as he controlled Vini Jr’s ball into the box mid-air and struck a powerful overhead kick to power Brazil to a 2-0 lead.
4. Ferran Torres | Spain | 2 goals
Spanish forward Ferran Torres bagged himself a brace in a clinical win in their opening fixture. Torres was in exceptional form in Spain’s opening encounter as he netted a penalty and then scored a brilliant goal to take his goal-scoring tally to 2.
5. Enner Valencia | Ecuador | 2 goals
Enner Valencia opened his account in this year’s World Cup with a brace against hosts Qatar, helping Ecuador to a 2-0 win. He could’ve had a hattrick if not for VAR overruling a goal.
6. Mehdi Taremi | Iran | 2 goals
While Iran couldn’t do much against England’s domination, their frontman Taremi managed to get a brace against 2018’s semi-finalists. A rousing finish off the cross-bar and a penalty helped the striker reduce the deficit marginally.
7. Lionel Messi | Argentina | 1 goal
Lionel Messi opened his World Cup account with a well taken-penalty against Saudi Arabia, however, it wasn’t enough to prevent them from suffering a surprise defeat in their opening game.
8. Cristiano Ronaldo, João Félix, Rafael Leão | Portugal | 1 goal
The leading men’s all-time goalscorer scored his 118th goal for Portugal after scoring a second-half penalty, following a foul on him in the penalty box.
Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 8th goal in World Cups and, thus, became the first player in World Cup history to score at five World Cup finals.
João Félix scored an important goal for Portugal to make it 2-1 for Portugal, just five minutes after André Ayew equalised for Ghana.
Rafael Leão, on his World Cup debut, scored just 2 minutes and 42 seconds after coming on as a substitute to score Portugal’s third. That goal more or less put the game beyond Ghana’s reach.
9. Marcus Rashford, Jack Grealish, Jude Bellingham, Raheem Sterling | England | 1 goal
While Bukayo Saka stole the headlines with a brace, Bellingham, Sterling, Rashford, and Grealish, each scored a goal apiece in England’s 6-2 rout of Iran in their World Cup opener, the latter two coming off the bench to do so.
10. Adrien Rabiot, Kylian Mbappé | France | 1 goal
Kylian Mbappé and Adrien Rabiot both scored headers on either side of Olivier Giroud’s brace as France came back to win 4-1 against Australia.
FIFA World Cup 2022 Top Scorers
The table below is updated as of Thursday, November 24.
| Rank | Player | Team | Goals (Penalties) | Assists | Matches | Minutes Played |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Ferran Torres | Spain | 2 (1) | 0 | 1 | 57 |
| Bukayo Saka | England | 2 (0) | 0 | 1 | 71 | |
| Enner Valencia | Ecuador | 2 (1) | 0 | 1 | 77 | |
| Richarlison | Brazil | 2 (0) | 0 | 1 | 79 | |
| Olivier Giroud | France | 2 (0) | 0 | 1 | 89 | |
| Mehdi Taremi | Iran | 2 (1) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| 7. | Alvaro Morata | Spain | 1 (0) | 1 | 1 | 33 |
| Raheem Sterling | England | 1 (0) | 1 | 1 | 71 | |
| Kylian Mbappe | France | 1 (0) | 1 | 1 | 90 | |
| Dani Olmo | Spain | 1 (0) | 1 | 1 | 90 | |
| Adrien Rabiot | France | 1 (0) | 1 | 1 | 90 | |
| Davy Klaassen | Netherlands | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 11 | |
| Osman Bukari | Ghana | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 13 | |
| Rafael Leao | Portugal | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 13 | |
| Ritsu Doan | Japan | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 19 | |
| Jack Grealish | England | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 19 | |
| Marcus Rashford | England | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 19 | |
| Takuma Asano | Japan | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 33 | |
| Carlos Soler | Spain | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 33 | |
| Ilkay Gundogan | Germany | 1 (1) | 0 | 1 | 67 | |
| Marco Asensio | Spain | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 69 | |
| Breel Embolo | Switzerland | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 72 | |
| Craig Goodwin | Australia | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 74 | |
| Andre Ayew | Ghana | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 77 | |
| Saleh Alshehri | Saudi Arabia | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 78 | |
| Michy Batshuayi | Belgium | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 78 | |
| Joao Felix | Portugal | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 88 | |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 1 (1) | 0 | 1 | 88 | |
| Tim Weah | USA | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 88 | |
| Salem Aldawsari | Saudi Arabia | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| Gareth Bale | Wales | 1 (1) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| Jude Bellingham | England | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| Cody Gakpo | Netherlands | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| Gavi | Spain | 1 (0) | 0 | 1 | 90 | |
| Lionel Messi | Argentina | 1 (1) | 0 | 1 | 90 |
Source: sportingnews
