5 oldest scorers in FIFA World Cup

By Peter Ochieng

The FIFA World Cup has produced a range of records in its over 90-year history, with players, coaches and teams in general leaving incredible marks in the hearts of football fans around the globe.

For instance, Germany’s Miroslav Klose is the top scorer in the FIFA World Cup history with 16 goals in 24 matches. He is followed by Brazilian Ronaldo with 15 goals in 19 matches, which means Ronaldo’s strike rate was lethal compared to Klose’s.

Argentina ace Lionel Andres Messi is joint fourth top scorer with 13 goals in 26 matches. He will seek to add to his tally if he gets a chance to appear in next year’s World Cup.

However, our focus today is on the 5 oldest players to score in a World Cup tournament. Here is the list:

1. Roger Milla – Cameroon

Albert Roger Miller represented Cameroon in three World Cup tournaments, achieving international stardom along the way.

In 1990 aged 38 years he scored 4 goals for Cameroon thus becoming the oldest goal scorer in World Cup history.

Four years later, at the age of 42, Milla broke his own record as the oldest goal scorer in the World Cup by scoring against Russia during the 1994 FIFA World Cup group match.

However, Cameroon ended up suffering a humiliating 6-1 defeat against the Russians.

2. Pepe – Portugal

Kepler Laveran de Lima Ferreira, simply known as Pepe was born and bred in Brazil but decided to represent Portugal at the international level, perhaps due to fierce competition for slots in the Brazilian national team.

In Qatar 2022 aged 39 years and 283 days, Pepe scored for Portugal against Switzerland in a match that ended 2-0 in favor of his Portuguese side.

3. Cristiano Ronaldo - Portugal 

Christiano Ronaldo will be 41 by the time the next World Cup tournament comes up in 2026.

He is the only player on this list with a mathematical chance of breaking Roger Milla’s record – that is if he features and scores in the World Cup in 2026 and in 2030 when he will be 45 years old.

Those who have played with him, the likes of Patrice Evra, his former teammate at Manchester United – anything is possible with Ronaldo.

He never takes number 2 or 3; he always wants to be number 1. But on this list, he is number 3 behind Milla and Pepe.

He scored a goal against Ghana aged 37 years and 295 days during the 2022 edition in Qatar.

4. Gunnar Gren - Sweden

Before Roger Milla rose to the top of this list in 1994, there was Johan Gunnar Gren, from Sweden.

He scored a goal aged 37 years and 236 days, during a match between Germany and Sweden in 1958.

5. Cuauhtémoc Blanco - México 

The former Mexican striker is now a politician in Mexico, having served as the governor of Marelos from 2018 to 2024.

However, in 2010, he was starring for Mexico at the FIFA World Cup in South Africa.

He scored against France aged 37 years and 151 days.