GUADALAJARA, Mexico (AP) — It’s been goals galore so far at the World Cup.
The tournament has been one of the highest-scoring in history so far and produced nearly 25% more scoring than the same span of games in the previous World Cup.
One reason for the increase in scoring might be the ball that FIFA is using for this tournament.
FIFA says the ball has been designed with deep seams to produce “optimal in-flight stability,” and players and coaches say it has been rocketing toward goalkeepers at a high velocity. There is also added grip to help striking and dribbling the ball in wet or humid conditions.
“This ball is as fast as a cannon ball. I think today and the last couple of days, you saw if you kick the ball in the right position, it’s extremely difficult to save,” Austria coach Ralf Rangnick said.
The games are also running longer because of increased stoppage time related to hydration breaks that are new this tournament, allowing more scoring opportunities. And the tournament has a bigger talent gap because of the expanded 48-team field that debuted this year.
The result: Fans were treated to 121 goals in the first 40 games of the tournament, and many of them came from internationally known players.
Premier League players are scoring the most
More than half the goals scored so far in the tournament were by players from the top three professional leagues in England, Germany and Spain. The English Premier League leads the way.
The trend was on full display over the weekend in the match between the Netherlands and Sweden, a 5-1 triumph for the Dutch team. All six goals in the match were scored by players who competed in the Premier League in the 2025-26 season.
“I think the Premier League is more intense than this World Cup,” said Gabriel Martinelli, a Brazil player from Arsenal. “But it’s certainly still a very beautiful World Cup, with high-quality and intense matches.”
Real Madrid, Inter Miami and Liverpool were the clubs whose players have produced the most goals. Miami, of course, is all because of one man — Lionel Messi.
In addition to 28 goals from the Premier League, 16 came from the German league, 11 from the Spanish league, seven from the French league and five from the Italian league.
Major League Soccer saw its players score eight times. Messi had a hat trick in Argentina’s opening match and another two on Monday. The other three MLS goals came from FC Dallas’ Petar Musa of Croatia, Atlanta United’s Matías Galarza of Paraguay and Portland Timbers’ Finn Surman of New Zealand.
When FIFA announced the official squads, there were 200 players based in England at the club level, nearly two times more than the 109 players based in Germany.
The tallies for the goals were made based on the players’ clubs when the official squad announcements were made.
Real Madrid and Liverpool at the top
Real Madrid players scored six times — three with France’s Kylian Mbappé, two with Brazil’s Vinícius Júnior and one with England’s Jude Bellingham.
Madrid did not have any players called up for Spain’s national team for the first time ever. It signed Marc Cucurella from Chelsea during the tournament, though, thus making one of its own a part of the World Cup with La Roja.
Liverpool got three goals from Dutch players — two by Cody Gapko and one by Virgil van Dijk. Another goal came by Sweden’s Alexander Isak, and the other was scored by Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, who was still listed as a Liverpool player when the squads were announced.
Bayern Munich had four goals from its players — a brace by England’s Harry Kane and one each by Germany’s Jamal Musiala and Colombia’s Luis Díaz.
Bayern was the team with the second-most players called up for the tournament with 18. Manchester City was the first with 19, though its only two goals at the World Cup so far came from Norway’s Erling Haaland.
How many goals are we talking about?
With 121 goals scored from 88 different players in the first 40 games of the tournament, the average per game was at three goals. There were only three 0-0 draws, and eight of the goals were own-goals.
The tournament is on pace to shatter the 172-goal record from Qatar in 2022. The records aren’t an apples-to-apples comparison because the 2022 edition only had 64 matches compared with 104 this year.
But the pace for 64 matches this year is at almost 194 goals, well beyond the record from four years ago.
The trend in goal-scoring goes beyond the World Cup. The Champions League has set new records in the past two seasons: 3.27 goals per game in 2024-2025 to 3.47 goals per game in the 2025-2026 season.
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AP World Cup: https://apnews.com/FIFA-World-Cup
Tales Azzoni, The Associated Press
