Gerd Müller scored 14 World Cup goals for West Germany in 13 matches: ten in Mexico in 1970, four at home in 1974. The last of them was the winner in the 1974 final against Johan Cruyff‘s Netherlands in Munich, and it also took the all-time scoring record from Just Fontaine. Müller then kept that record until Ronaldo Nazário passed him in 2006, and he never played for West Germany again after that final.
Two World Cups, 13 starts, 14 goals. He is now level with Harry Kane in fifth place on the all-time scoring list, and he needed fewer matches than anyone above him.
World Cup record by tournament
| Tournament | Age | Played | Goals | West Germany’s finish | Scoring list |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970, Mexico | 24 | 6 | 10 | Third | Top scorer |
| 1974, West Germany | 28 | 7 | 4 | Champions | — |
| Total | 13 | 14 |
Every World Cup match
| Date | Stage | Opponent | West Germany’s result | Müller | Goals | Minute of each goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 June 1970 | First round | Morocco | 2-1 | Started | 1 | 80 |
| 7 June 1970 | First round | Bulgaria | 5-2 | Started | 3 | 27, 52 (pen.), 88 |
| 10 June 1970 | First round | Peru | 3-1 | Started | 3 | 19, 26, 39 |
| 14 June 1970 | Quarter-final | England | 3-2 after extra time | Started | 1 | 108 |
| 17 June 1970 | Semi-final | Italy | 3-4 after extra time | Started | 2 | 94, 110 |
| 20 June 1970 | Third place | Uruguay | 1-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 14 June 1974 | First round | Chile | 1-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 18 June 1974 | First round | Australia | 3-0 | Started | 1 | 53 |
| 22 June 1974 | First round | East Germany | 0-1 | Started | 0 | — |
| 26 June 1974 | Second round | Yugoslavia | 2-0 | Started | 1 | 82 |
| 30 June 1974 | Second round | Sweden | 4-2 | Started | 0 | — |
| 3 July 1974 | Second round | Poland | 1-0 | Started | 1 | 76 |
| 7 July 1974 | Final | Netherlands | 2-1 | Started | 1 | 43 |
How the 14 goals break down
He started all 13 matches and was never substituted, which, with two games going to extra time in 1970, adds up to more than 1,200 minutes on the pitch. He scored in nine of the 13. West Germany won eleven of them and lost two: the 1970 semi-final against Italy and the 1974 group match against East Germany.
Ten came in group matches, counting the second-round groups of 1974, and four in knockout matches, the final included. Only one was a penalty, the second of his three against Bulgaria. Seven of the 14 came in the three group matches in León in June 1970.
The scoring rate, and where it really ranks
Fourteen goals in 13 matches is a rate of 1.08 a game. It is often called the best in World Cup history. It is not. Among the players with ten or more World Cup goals, Sándor Kocsis scored 11 in five matches in 1954, a rate of 2.20, and Fontaine scored 13 in six in 1958, 2.17. Müller is third.
| Player | Goals | Matches | Goals per match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sándor Kocsis | 11 | 5 | 2.20 |
| Just Fontaine | 13 | 6 | 2.17 |
| Gerd Müller | 14 | 13 | 1.08 |
| Kylian Mbappé | 22 | 22 | 1.00 |
| Ronaldo Nazário | 15 | 19 | 0.79 |
| Harry Kane | 14 | 18 | 0.78 |
| Miroslav Klose | 16 | 24 | 0.67 |
| Lionel Messi | 21 | 34 | 0.62 |
What does hold up is narrower. Of the six players who have reached 14 World Cup goals, Müller did it in the fewest matches, and he is the only one who scored more goals than he played games.
1970: ten goals in Mexico
Müller was 24 and playing for Bayern Munich. West Germany played their group in León, and their first match went badly: Morocco led from the 21st minute. Uwe Seeler equalised, and Müller headed the winner ten minutes from the end.
Then he scored three against Bulgaria, including a penalty, and three more against Peru three days later, all of them before half-time: 19, 26 and 39 minutes. That was seven goals in his first three World Cup matches.
In the quarter-final against England, the holders, West Germany were 2-0 down after 49 minutes. Franz Beckenbauer and Seeler brought it back to 2-2, and Müller scored the winner in the 108th minute of extra time. Three days later came the semi-final against Italy in Mexico City, the match remembered as the “Game of the Century”. Italy led until the last minute of normal time. In extra time Müller put West Germany ahead at 94 minutes and equalised at 3-3 at 110, and Gianni Rivera scored for Italy a minute later. Müller did not score in the 1-0 win over Uruguay for third place.
Ten goals made him the tournament’s top scorer, and later that year he won the Ballon d’Or. Nobody has scored more at one World Cup since. Mbappé matched the ten in 2026, in two more matches.
1974: four goals and the final
Two years later Müller was European champion, having scored twice in the final of Euro 1972, and West Germany were playing the World Cup at home. It took him longer this time. He did not score against Chile, got the third goal against Australia and was on the losing side in Hamburg, where East Germany won 1-0.
In the second round he scored against Yugoslavia, which made it 12, and then the only goal against Poland in Frankfurt, his thirteenth, level with Fontaine. Poland’s goalkeeper Jan Tomaszewski had already saved a penalty from Uli Hoeneß in that match. West Germany were in the final.
The Netherlands scored from a penalty in the second minute. Paul Breitner equalised from the spot, and two minutes before half-time Müller turned in the area and scored from Rainer Bonhof’s cross. It won the World Cup, and it was his fourteenth goal, one more than Fontaine. Wikipedia adds that he had another goal wrongly ruled out for offside. It was his last match for West Germany: 68 goals in 62 internationals.
Who took the record, and when
Müller’s 14 stood for 32 years. Ronaldo Nazário equalled it against Japan and passed it against Ghana at the 2006 World Cup, in Germany. Klose took the record from Ronaldo in 2014, and in 2026 Messi and Mbappé went past Klose. Harry Kane reached 14 at the same tournament, so Müller now shares fifth place with him, still with five fewer matches.
Müller died on 15 August 2021, aged 75. His profile sits next to Miroslav Klose, who broke his German international scoring record, and Just Fontaine, whose World Cup record he broke.
Sources and method
RSSSF’s match records for 1970 and 1974; FIFA’s match centre for each of the 13 matches; FIFA’s list of all-time leading scorers (19 July 2026); Wikipedia’s pages on Gerd Müller, 1970 Group 4, the 1970 knockout stage, 1974 Group 1 and Group B, and the 1974 final.
Appearances, results and scorers were recounted from RSSSF and checked against FIFA and Wikipedia. Only matches at World Cup final tournaments count. Ages are calculated from his date of birth, 3 November 1945. The rules are in How we verify.
Where the sources disagree
FIFA’s match centre and Wikipedia give the same minute for all 14 goals. RSSSF differs by one to two minutes on six of them. The match log uses the FIFA and Wikipedia minutes.
| Goal | FIFA | Wikipedia | RSSSF | Used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| v Bulgaria, 1970 | 27′, 52′, 88′ | 27′, 52′, 88′ | 28′, 52′, 87′ | 27′, 52′, 88′ |
| v Peru, 1970 | 19′ | 19′ | 20′ | 19′ |
| v England, 1970 | 108′ | 108′ | 106′ | 108′ |
| v Italy, 1970 | 94′ | 94′ | 95′ | 94′ |
| v Yugoslavia, 1974 | 82′ | 82′ | 80′ | 82′ |