Top 5 South American goalscorers in FIFA World Cup qualifiers
The FIFA World Cup qualifiers in South America (CONMEBOL zone) follow a true round-robin format, unlike any other continent/zone.
The ten participating nations play each other exactly twice, home and away, with the top four teams sealing automatic berths in the quadrennial competition. Interestingly, all but one team - Venezuela - has never graced the World Cup finals.
La Vinotinto have endured another miserable qualification campaign. Currently occupying last place in the standings, they are already out of contention with only two games remaining. At the other end of the table, continental heavyweights Brazil and Argentina, have already qualified for Qatar' 22 with many games to spare.
Over the years, many prolific goalscorers have graced the CONMEBOL FIFA World Cup qualifiers. The trend has continued this year too. On that note, here's a look at the five most prolific South American goalscorers in FIFA World Cup qualifying:
#5 Hernan Crespo (Argentina) - 19 goals
Hernan Crespo was a goal machine for club and country. The striker scored nearly 250 goals in his club career, most of them in Italy, and also had success with his national team.
Crespo scored 35 goals for Argentina, with more than half of them (19) coming in FIFA World Cup qualifiers across three qualification campaigns. The 46-year-old also netted four times in the quadrennial competition - once in 2002 and thrice in 2006.
RT to wish @Argentina's Hernan Crespo a 'happy birthday'! #ARGBEL #WorldCup - fifa.to/1jQuDzw http://t.co/310j13spSo
Despite winning league titles in three different countries, Crespo's only silverware with Argentina was at the 1995 Pan American Games.
#4 Alexis Sanchez (Chile) - 19 goals
Alexis Sanchez has had a career that promised much but has delivered so little. Despite his prowess in the attacking third, the 33-year-old has had a pretty underwhelming return of less than one goal every three games (176 in 602) in his club career.
His goal return with Chile isn't much better as well. However, with 48 goals in 146 games, the Inter Milan attacker is the team's all-time top scorer. Impressively, 19 of these strikes have come in FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Two of those goals - Sanchez's first in almost six years for Chile - came in the team's 3-2 win over Bolivia in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers on Tuesday.
Alexis Sanchez scored twice in Chile's 3-2 win over Bolivia last night, his first brace in international football since 2016 (vs Uruguay)
😯 Alexis Sanchez scored twice in Chile's 3-2 win over Bolivia last night, his first brace in international football since 2016 (vs Uruguay) https://t.co/QmQvPdNp3L
Sanchez has scored only twice in the World Cup finals, though.