The twelve days of World Cup: 7 days to go...

The all-time top World Cup goalscorers are as follows: Ronaldo (Brazil) 15; Gerd Muller (Germany) 14; Just Fontaine (France) 13; Pele (Brazil) 12; Jurgen Klinsmann (Germany), Sandor Kocsis (Hungary) 11; Gary Lineker (England), Teofilo Cubillas (Peru), Gabriel Batistuta (Argentina), plus three or four others, 10. Impressive, you may say, but why are you telling us this? Simple. Most of those players are household names. Ronaldo, the top scorer, shone in 1998, 2002 and, although not quite as brightly, in 2006. Muller, nicknamed 'Der Bomber', shone throughout the 1970s, chalking an incredible 68 goals in a mere 62 caps. Pele is, well, Pele, whose 12 were spread accross four tournaments, three of which resulted with him hauling a shiny gold chunk back to Rio with him.

The name I wish to draw your attention to is that of Just Fontaine, the third top scorer. Fontaine's France record reads 21 caps, 30 goals. His sole tournament was in 1958. The seventeen year-old Brazilian prodigy wins the plaudits and the adulation, and inevitably, the trophy, but a man from Marrakech, Morocco walked home with the golden boot for bagging a stupendous 13 goals in just 6 games. This included 4 against reigning champion West Germany, as Fontaine outshone perhaps the finest French player of all, Raymond Kopa. Pele managed 6 in 6 as a seventeen year old, itself a remarkable feat, but looks profligate in comparison.

In the modern era, the top scorer seldom tops 5 or 6 goals, bar Muller who bagged 10 in 1970 (and, like Fontaine, went home empty handed), and Ronaldo got 8 in 2002 (plus no trophy - no golden boot winner since Paolo Rossi in 1982 has gone home with a medal to match their golden boot).

Fontaine's 13 record will stand for a long time, even though the last four get 7 games compared to the 6 which Fontaine had. There was something in the air in 1958, the results and sheer amount of goals make astonishing reading, but take nothing away from the 24 year old, to average better than 2 a game will remain unsurpassed. Can anyone see a Rooney, a Villa, a Podolski or even Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo bagging 8 or 9, let alone 13, in the next month and a half? No. Just, your record is safe as houses. If any player equals or beats 13 in this World Cup, I will pay them both £10,000 and eat the proverbial headgear.

Just Fontaine - the finest World Cup goalscoring record of all time, highly unlikely ever to be troubled.

TOMORROW: We look at England's best World Cup performance since you-know-when, and perhaps the most painful of exits...