‎Top Scorers in Football History

‎Top Scorers in Football History: Nine hundred and seventy-one goals. One man. Still playing at the age of 41. No player in the history of professional football has ever come close to that number.

‎Top Scorers in Football History

Stats compiled by IFFHS, updated as of 8 May 2026.

10. Joe Bambrick* 🇬🇧

• Career: 1926 to 1943
• Main Club: Linfield, Chelsea

Joe Bambrick is one of the least celebrated names on this list. He spent the core of his career at Linfield in Northern Ireland and scored 500 of his 626 goals for that one club. His 253 cup goals are a product of an era when cup competitions were played far more frequently than today. He scored 50 goals in the 1930-31 season alone, which was the highest individual tally in the world that year. He scored 6 goals in a single international game against Wales in 1930. A record that still stands.

9. Gerd Müller* 🇩🇪

• Career: 1964 to 1981
• Main Club: Bayern Munich

Gerd Müller was the most clinical striker European football had ever seen. He scored 365 Bundesliga goals, a record that stood untouched for 49 years. He finished as Germany’s all-time top scorer with 68 international goals in just 62 appearances. He scored 19 goals in European competition across four different UEFA tournaments in a single season in 1972-73. He won the World Cup in 1974 with a late winner in the final. He passed away in August 2021 at the age of 75.

8. Jimmy Jones* 🇬🇧

• Career: 1947 to 1964
• Main Club: Glenavon

Jimmy Jones remains one of the most overlooked goalscorers in the history of the sport. He scored 500 of his 639 goals at Glenavon in Northern Ireland. His 286 cup goals reflect how heavily Irish football depended on cup competitions during that era. He played 17 years as a professional. He barely featured in European competition. His name deserves far more recognition than it receives.

7. Robert Lewandowski 🇵🇱

• Career: 2008 to present
• Clubs: Dortmund, Bayern Munich, FC Barcelona

Robert Lewandowski broke Gerd Müller’s 49-year Bundesliga record in May 2021 when he scored his 41st goal of the season in stoppage time on the final day. He has scored 312 goals in German football across two clubs. He scored 119 goals in continental competition, including 91 in the Champions League. He moved to Barcelona in 2022 and kept scoring. He is still playing and still adding to a tally that already cements him among the greatest strikers who ever lived.

6. Josef Bican* 🇨🇿

• Career: 1931 to 1955
• Main Club: Slavia Prague

Josef Bican scored 515 league goals across Czech and Austrian top-flight football across 24 seasons. He scored 500 of his 722 goals at Slavia Prague alone. His name was largely forgotten for decades. Historical research and IFFHS investigation eventually restored his full record. He scored at an average of over 30 goals per season throughout his peak years. He is now recognised as one of the most prolific strikers in the entire history of the sport.

5. Ferenc Puskás 🇭🇺🇪🇸

• Career: 1943 to 1966
• Clubs: Honvéd, Real Madrid

Ferenc Puskás scored international goals for two different countries, Hungary and Spain. He scored 84 combined international goals across both nationalities. He scored 4 goals in the 1960 European Cup final, a match Real Madrid won 7-3 against Eintracht Frankfurt. He defected from Hungary following the 1956 revolution and joined Real Madrid at the age of 31. He won five Spanish league titles in six seasons.

4. Romário 🇧🇷

• Career: 1985 to 2007
• Clubs: Vasco da Gama, PSV, Barcelona, Flamengo

Romário was the finest penalty box striker of his generation. He won the 1994 FIFA World Cup with Brazil and was named the tournament’s best player. He scored 545 league goals, the third highest verified total in history behind Pelé and Cristiano Ronaldo. He retired and then re-registered as a player at the age of 58 to play alongside his son in a Brazilian lower-league side. An icon in every sense.

3. Pelé* 🇧🇷

• Career: 1957 to 1977
• Clubs: Santos, New York Cosmos

Pelé won the World Cup in 1958, 1962, and 1970. He was 17 years old when he won his first. He scored 604 of his 762 goals in league football, every single one of them for Santos. He scored 83 international goals in 92 caps for Brazil. He is the only player in history to win three World Cups. He passed away in December 2022 at the age of 82. Football has never seen anything quite like him.

2. Lionel Messi* 🇦🇷

• Career: 2004 to present
• Clubs: Barcelona, PSG, Inter Miami

Lionel Messi scored 500 of his 906 goals at Barcelona alone. He holds 8 Ballon d’Or awards, the most in history. He scored 116 international goals for Argentina and led them to the 2022 World Cup title in Qatar. He scored 158 continental goals, the second most in Champions League and continental history. He moved to Inter Miami in 2023 and scored 29 goals in the 2025 MLS season alone. He is 38 years old and still going.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo 🇵🇹

• Career: 2002 to present
• Clubs: Sporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al-Nassr

Nine hundred and seventy-one goals. The most ever recorded in professional football history. Cristiano Ronaldo holds 143 international goals for Portugal, the most by any man in the history of international football. He scored 173 continental goals, 140 of those in the Champions League, also a record that stands alone. He has won the Champions League five times and the Ballon d’Or five times. He plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia and scored 35 goals in the 2024-25 season at the age of 39. The record will not be broken in our lifetimes.