Germany striker Miroslav Klose still holds the record of most Fifa World Cup goals with his 16 strikes.
Image: FILE
Some FIFA World Cup records feel untouchable. They have survived decades of challenges from the greatest players the sport has ever seen.
Yet with football evolving, tournaments expanding and stars playing longer than ever before, a handful of legendary marks could finally come under threat in the years ahead.
The most obvious target is Miroslav Klose's record of 16 World Cup goals. The German striker set the benchmark across four tournaments between 2002 and 2014.
While modern football has produced prolific scorers such as Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland, only Mbappé appears realistically positioned to challenge the record after already scoring 12 World Cup goals before turning 28.
Another famous mark is Lionel Messi's 2,315 World Cup minutes played. Reaching five tournaments is difficult enough, but accumulating that many minutes requires consistently deep runs into the knockout stages.
As international careers continue to lengthen, this endurance record may eventually come under pressure.
One record that looks surprisingly vulnerable is Hakan Şükür's fastest World Cup goal of 11 seconds. In an era of football where teams press aggressively from kick-off and goalkeepers often play risky passes, all it would take is one defensive mistake for the Turkish striker's mark to fall.
Then there is Peter Shilton and Fabien Barthez's shared record of 10 World Cup clean sheets.
Goalkeepers are enjoying longer careers than ever before, and a keeper who combines longevity with multiple deep tournament runs could eventually surpass them.
Not all records appear equally fragile. Just Fontaine's 13 goals in a single World Cup has stood since 1958 and remains one of football's most astonishing achievements.
However, the expanded 48-team format from 2026 means top players will potentially have more matches available, creating an outside chance for a prolific striker to make history.
The record for 11 successful tackles in a single match, jointly held by Gennaro Gattuso and Javier Mascherano, could also be threatened as modern analytics place greater emphasis on defensive actions. Midfield destroyers are now tracked more closely than ever before.
Finally, Nigerian football Jay-Jay Okocha's 15 successful dribbles in a single World Cup match remains one of the most remarkable individual displays on record. With football increasingly focused on structure and defensive organisation, it may take a once-in-a-generation entertainer to eclipse it.
Some records are built to last. Others are simply waiting for the next superstar to arrive and rewrite history. With the list of A-list footballers at this year's World Cup, maybe a few of the records mention will be broken over the course of the next month.
Jehran Naidoo is sports reporter for Independent Media and social media coordinator of the our YouTube channel The Clutch