The all-time leading goalscorer is often a controversial topic and often produces varied lists.
FIFA has never published a list detailing the top scorers in history and does not keep official records, which makes these rankings a bit more difficult to officially confirm.
That said, this list is based on figures collated by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). So while Pele can claim that he has scored over 1,000 goals in his career, we are not including all of his strikes. Mainly because throwing your three-year-old in the garden doesn’t really count as an official goal. Who would have thought?
There are only two currently active players on this list (no prizes for guessing), but it’s possible Robert Lewandowski could squeeze in there, provided he produces a few more seasons of high totals.
10. Joe Bambrick – 616
A Northern Irish footballer between 1926 and 1939, Bambrick is credited with scoring 616 goals, scoring an average of 44 goals per season.
He played for Glentoran and Linfield in his home country for much of his career, before venturing to England to play for Chelsea and Walsall. Bambrick’s most prolific spell came at Linfield, however, where he scored 286 in just 183 appearances.
Bambrick also scored 12 times for Ireland, including six goals in a match against Wales in 1930. There remains a record for the most goals scored by a player from the British Isles in an international match.
9. Eusebio – 619
Portugal’s most legendary player until Cristiano Ronaldo stole the torch from him, Eusebio plundered the majority of his 619 career goals at Benfica, where he spent 16 years. Indeed, Eusebio scored 473 times at The Eagles, which he joined from Mozambican side Sporting de Lourenço Marques, where he netted 77 goals in 42 games.
Although he played for the Portugal national team for 13 years between 1961 and 1973, Eusebio only made 64 official appearances. Still, he managed to score 41 times, helping his adopted nation to third place in the 1966 World Cup. The previous year, he clinched the Ballon d’Or.
8. Gerd Muller – 634
Often called the all-time top scorer, Gerd Muller shot 634 times past the goalkeepers between 1964 and 1981.
The German finished all but three years of his Bayern Munich career, scoring 563 goals and setting Bundesliga record after Bundesliga record – some of which have now been broken by Robert Lewandowski, such as most goals in a single season of championship. Either way, he won the Golden Boot seven times, winning four Bundesliga titles and three European Cups.
Muller has even managed a ratio better than one goal per game at international level. His 68 strikes in 62 games helped West Germany win Euro 1972 and the 1974 World Cup.
7. Jimmy Jones – 647
Another Northern Irishman to make this list, Jimmy Jones started his career at Glenavon Juniors in 1944 and retired to Newry Town in 1965.
During this period, he scored a remarkable 647 career goals, all in his home country. He spent a year in English football, having moved to Fulham in the summer of 1950, but he failed to make a first-team appearance due to a technicality regarding his registration. Jones could only play in reserve team matches and therefore did not score any official goals in England.
Despite the disappointment of not being able to establish himself in another league, Jones returned to Northern Ireland with Glenavon. It was there that he enjoyed his most successful period as a goalscorer, beating the goalkeeper more than 500 times over a span of 12 years.
6. Josef Bican – 720
While Pele’s oft-cited career tally is considered perhaps the most controversial in football, it is arguably Bican’s that is even more disputed among statisticians.
According to Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF), the Vienna-born striker scored 948 goals in 624 matches between 1931 and 1957, while FIFA in 2020 finally awarded Bican 805 goals. The RSSSF includes goals in tournaments and winter fixtures where Bican represented regional and city teams, with the matches basically considered unofficial.
Many publications have also claimed that FIFA’s total was not correct either, suggesting that some of those goals came in unofficial international friendlies and reserve team matches.
As a result, IFFHS figures still put Bican’s total strike count at 720, including 535 in as few as 272 games at Slavia Prague.
5. Ferenc Puskas – 729
Puskas is best known for his time with the Hungarian national team and his spell at Real Madrid, but, before joining Los Blancos in 1958, he had already scored 383 goals for Hungarian side Kispest, which was later renamed Budapesti Honvéd SE.
Puskas started his career with Kispest in 1943 and was part of the Mighty Magyars Hungary side which beat England 6-3 and 7-1 in 1953 and 1954. In 85 games for his country, Puskas scored 84 times.
However, after leaving the country during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, Puskas emigrated to Spain and did not return until 1981. As a result, he signed for Real Madrid and played four games for Spain in the 1962 World Cup, although he failed to convert every chance.
His time at Real Madrid brought him plenty of La Liga and European Cup honours, including plenty of goal celebrations. In 262 games, Puskas scored 242 goals.
4. Romario – 755
Romario’s tally is pretty impossible to quantify but the IFFHS has the Brazilian’s total tally at 755 career goals, including 55 for the Brazil national team which helped the country win the 1994 World Cup.
That year’s Ballon d’Or winner maintains he has many more goals than this, having celebrated what he claimed was his 1,000th goal in 2007. However, he later admitted the numbers extras in his tally included friendlies, and so are not officially counted.
3. Pele – 762
Like Bican and Romario, Pele claims he has scored more times than he is officially credited with.
When Lionel Messi reportedly broke the record for most goals for a single club in December 2020, scoring his 644th for Barcelona, Pele’s former club Santos denied the claim. The Brazilian side claimed 448 goals weren’t in the records, while Pele himself took to Instagram to point out his career tally stands at 1,283.
Guinness World Records broke Pele by scoring 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, including friendlies.
However, the IFFHS has the big Brazilian as having scored 762 times, still a remarkable figure for one of the greatest players of all time – 643 of those goals are said to have come at Santos, where he has spent all of the last three years. of his illustrious playing career.
For Brazil, he scored 77 goals in 92 games.
2.Lionel Messi – 781
Everyone knows what a good player Lionel Messi is, and his goalscoring record is unsurprisingly one of the best ever.
His 672 goals in 778 appearances for Barcelona is recognized as the most by a player for a single club in football history, while 90 goals in an Argentine shirt is the third most in international appearances.
Currently playing in France for PSG, Messi has scored 781 career goals in total. He still has time to close the gap to the all-time top scorer, because at 35 he’s still a few years younger than…
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 817
Cristiano Ronaldo. In fact, the greatest goalscorer in the history of football.
Against Everton in the Premier League in October, Ronaldo scored his 700th career club goal, achieved in just 945 games. According to records, he is the only player to ever achieve this milestone, adding to another record he broke in international football.
Indeed, in September 2021, the Portugal international overtook Iran’s Ali Daei as the most prolific bagman in international football. His two goals against the Republic of Ireland that day took him past Daei’s tally of 109 goals, and since then Ronaldo has scored more to put him on 117-plus strikes.
He still seems as eager to keep scoring goals, so don’t be surprised to see him trying to hit that 900 goal mark before his playing days are over.
