The Qatar World Cup is now just two weeks away.
World sport’s biggest spectacle kicks off on November 20th with the host nation’s group match against Ecuador.
It promises to be a festival of football in the Middle East, one in which the superstar trio of Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar will be bidding to win the World Cup for the very first time with their respective nations.
We simply cannot wait and to get the World Cup juices flowing, we’ve decided to take a look back at players who’ve lit up the tournament down the years.
Using Transfermarkt‘s database, we’ve worked out the player with the most goals and assists combined at each edition since 1966, where England claimed their maide triumph.
Rather surprisingly, Pele – the man who’s won the World Cup a record three times with Brazil – doesn’t feature. Yes, even in 1970…
Read more: World Cup 2022: Dates, Schedule, Location, Groups, Tickets, Odds And More
1966 – Eusebio (Portugal)
Games: 6 | Goals: 9 | Assists: 1 | Goal contributions: 10
1970 – Gerd Muller (West Germany)
Games: 6 | Goals: 10 | Assists: 3 | Goal contributions: 13
1974 – Johan Cruyff (Netherlands)
Games: 7 | Goals: 3 | Assists: 7 | Goal contributions: 10
1978 – Mario Kempes (Argentina)
Games: 7 | Goals: 6 | Assists: 1 | Goal contributions: 7
1982 – Zico (Brazil)
Games: 5 | Goals: 4 | Assists: 4 | Goal contributions: 8
1986 – Diego Maradona (Argentina)
Games: 7 | Goals: 5 | Assists: 5 | Goal contributions: 10
1990 – Salvatore Schillaci (Italy)
Games: 7 | Goals: 6 | Assists: 1 | Goal contributions: 7
1994 – Romario (Brazil)
Games: 7 | Goals: 5 | Assists: 3 | Goal contributions: 8
1998 – Ronaldo Nazario (Brazil)
Games: 7 | Goals: 4 | Assists: 3 | Goal contributions: 7
2002 – Ronaldo Nazario (Brazil)
Games: 7 | Goals: 8 | Assists: 1 | Goal contributions: 9
2006 – Miroslav Klose (Germany)
Games: 7 | Goals: 5 | Assists: 2 | Goal contributions: 7
2010 – Thomas Muller (Germany)
Games: 6 | Goals: 5 | Assists: 3 | Goal contributions: 8
2014 – James Rodriguez (Colombia)
Games: 5 | Goals: 6 | Assists: 2 | Goal contributions: 8
2018 – Antoine Griezmann (France)
Games: 7 | Goals: 4 | Assists: 3 | Goal contributions: 7
In 1970, Muller took top spot with a whopping 13 goal contributions, comfortably the most by a player at a single World Cup since 1966.
Ronaldo is the only player to feature on the list twice, the Brazilian icon taking the gold medal at consecutive tournaments.
Only Klose has scored more World Cup goals than ‘El Fenomeno’.
Quiz: Can you name all 30 of these ‘streets won’t forget’ players from World Cups?
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