Where does Jude Bellingham rank among World Cup top-scoring midfielders?

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15 July 2026

The

World Cup

has been lit up over the years by dozens of top-class strikers, but plenty of midfielders have had their say as well.

Jude Bellingham

is currently enjoying one of the best goalscoring

campaigns ever seen by a midfielder.

So we’ve taken a closer look at the midfielders with the most

goals.

The definition of a midfielder can be loose, so we’ve included some attacking midfielders in here that, admittedly, some people might class as forwards. We’ll let you make up your own mind about who counts and who doesn’t.

Peru have scored 21 goals at World Cups over the years. Almost half of those were scored by Cubillas.

An attacking midfielder, he competed at the 1970, 1978 and 1982 World Cups. At his first, he scored in every game he played, including in Peru’s quarter-final defeat to eventual winners Brazil.

A hat-trick against Iran in 1978 marked the last time Cubillas would score at a

, taking his all-time competition tally to 10.

At the time, only West Germany’s Gerd Muller and Helmut Rahn, France’s Just Fontaine, Brazil’s Pele and Hungary’s Sandor Kocsis had reached double figures of

goals as well as Cubillas.

One of the best players in

history, Maradona reached a

career pinnacle when winning it with Argentina in 1986

He scored eight World Cups in all – one of those, of course, being with his hand, and another, in the same game, being arguably the best goal in the tournament’s whole history.

The Argentina number 10 played in the 1982, 1990 and 1994 World Cups as well as the one he won.

Midfielder? We’re not so sure, but he wasn’t a centre-forward either. One thing we can all agree on is that he was sublime.

Another attacking midfielder who was more attacking than midfielder,

Rivaldo

was part of the Brazil squad that reached the 1998

final, sometimes playing as a winger.

But it was when he featured more centrally in 2002 that he thrived in front of goal and

outed himself as world football’s biggest sh*thouse

Brazil’s number 10 for the tournament, he scored in Brazil’s first five games of their victorious 2002 campaign, having scored three in the previous

Schafer scored on his

debut for West Germany in 1954 and finished the tournament with four goals – and a winner’s medal.

More of a winger at the time, he played in a more central role for their trophy defence in 1958, scoring a further three goals as they finished fourth.

If Bellingham wants something to boast about, he could easily claim to be the highest-scoring

midfielder already if we’re talking pure midfielders.

Yes, he plays as a number 10 for England, but if he was to play in any other position, you’d presume it’d be further back rather than further forward.

Bellingham scored on his

debut in 2022, but it’s been in 2026 that he has really shone.

Game-changing braces against Mexico in the round of 16 and Norway in the quarter-final have proven his importance to England after his group stage efforts against Croatia and Panama.

The player with the most

appearances in history before Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came along, Matthaus played in five consecutive tournaments between 1982 and 1998.

Four of his six

goals came in West Germany’s victorious 1990 campaign, with one apiece in the tournament either side.

Matthaus was definitely a midfielder and even moved deeper to play as a sweeper later in his career.

Sneijder starred as an attacking midfielder in the 2010 World Cup

, helping the Netherlands to the final with one goal in the group stage, then one in the round of 16, two in the quarter-final and one in the semi-final.

But neither Sneijder nor any of his teammates could score against Spain in the final.

Four years later, his sixth and final

goal came against Mexico in the round of 16.

Polish attacking midfielder Boniek played at three World Cups, scoring twice at his first in 1978 and four times at his second in 1982.

He scored a hat trick against Belgium in 1982 on Poland’s course to a third-place finish.

After marking his

debut against Czechoslovakia in 1970 with a goal, Rivellino scored twice more on Brazil’s way to winning the tournament.

He often played as a winger in that tournament, but played in attacking midfield as much as he did out wide in 1974, again scoring three goals.

Rodriguez’s efforts for Colombia in the 2014

earned him the Golden Boot and a move from Monaco to

Real Madrid

The attacking midfielder scored in every game he played in that tournament, including a brace in the round of 16 against Uruguay before his side lost to Brazil in the next round.

Rodriguez also represented Colombia at the 2018 and 2026 World Cups, but failed to add to his goal tally.

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