Top 70 World Cup cap holders in football

Top 70 World Cup cap holders: Representing one’s nation is the biggest honour any footballer can have. Doing so in the biggest stage in the sport, the FIFA World Cup is nothing short of spectacular. With the World cup being conducted only once every 4 years, not just being among the top footballers in your nation is necessary but longevity and consistency are key factors to earn multiple World cup caps.

This is exactly what the below given list of players have achieved. This list includes the top 70 players with the most World Cup caps to their name. These professionals have participated in a minimum of fifteen World Cup matches. As usual we will have a closer look among the most impressive of them in this aspect.

Lionel Messi (26 matches)

It took Leo Messi 26 matches, 16 years and 26 matches to finally get his hands on the one trophy that evaded him his whole life. The forward has scored 13 goals in those 26 games. Which puts his goals per match ratio at 0.50. This also makes him the 4th highest goalscorer in the tournament.

Lothar Matthäus (25 matches)

Second on our list is yet another big game when it comes to the FIFA World Cup. The German, however, did not have to wait until the 5th tournament of his to lift the famous trophy. Instead, he did in his 3rd time with West Germany. Matthäus managed to score six goals across his five World Cups. The midfielder/sweeper thus records a goals per match ratio of 0.24.

Miroslav Klose (24 matches)

Third on our list is another German footballer. Like Messi, it also took the striker until his last tournament to list the World Cup. Unlike the previous two, however, Klose was limited to just four World Cup tournaments. Nevertheless, no other man has scored more goals than the Werder Bremen legend in the World Cup. He scored 16 goals at a rate of 0.67 per match.

Paolo Maldini (23 matches)

Next up is the 1st defender in this list. Paolo Maldini is also the 1st entry in the list without a World Cup to his name. Italy’s most capped player at the time of his retirement was unlucky to not have stuck around for another edition of the World Cup. Where his nation was crowned champions. This is given the fact that Maldini was an active footballer until 2009.

Cristiano Ronaldo (22 matches)

Few would argue the fact that Ronaldo is the greatest player to have not lifted the World Cup. The Portuguese is the 3rd of only 4 in this list that have made appearances in five World Cups. He is also the only one to have scored in five different World Cups. Cristiano Ronaldo’s eight goals put his per match ratio at 0.36.

In terms of current footballers active in the list none are close to toppling the top five in the list, even the likes of Antoine Griezmann and Thibaut Courtois are still a long way behind. Despite them being relatively young at 31 years-old.