List of footballers with 500 or more goals

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Cristiano Ronaldo is widely considered the top goalscorer of all time.

In top-level football competitions, 23 players have scored 500 or more goals over the course of their career in both club and international football, according to research by the IFFHS,[1] first published in 2007.[2] Taking into account competitions of all levels, 63 players have reached the milestone according to research by the RSSSF,[3] an organisation described by German newspaper Der Spiegel as a "Wikipedia of football statistics".[4] Hungarian Imre Schlosser was the first to reach the 500-goal mark, doing so in 1927 shortly before his retirement.[5] Eight players have accomplished the feat at a single club, among them Josef Bican (Slavia Prague), Jimmy Jones (Glenavon), Jimmy McGrory (Celtic), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich), Pelé (Santos), Fernando Peyroteo (Sporting CP), and Uwe Seeler (Hamburg).[6] Of these eight, Messi scored the most, with 672 goals between his debut in 2004 and his departure in 2021.[7]

FIFA, the international governing body of football, has never released a list detailing the highest goalscorers and does not keep official records;[8][9] in 2020, it recognised Bican, an Austrian-Czech dual international who played between the 1930s and the 1950s,[10] as the record scorer with an estimated 805 goals,[11][12] although CNN, the BBC, France 24, and O Jogo all acknowledge that Bican's tally includes goals scored for reserve teams and in unofficial international matches.[9][13][14][15] UEFA, the governing body for European football, ranks him as the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues with 518 goals, narrowly ahead of Hungarian Ferenc Puskás.[16] The RSSSF credits Bican with 948 goals, a tally which includes goals scored in winter tournaments, as well as when selected to represent regional and city teams,[17] and the Football Association of the Czech Republic claims a total of 821.[18][19] Spanish newspapers Marca and Sport state that both Bican and Pelé scored 762 goals.[20][21] Such is the difficulty for statisticians and media outlets to determine which goals to include that the topic has spurred controversy;[22][23] Bican once walked out of a gala held in his honour by the IFFHS after the organisation had excluded war-time goals from his tally, although it later recognised 229 goals he had scored during the period.[24]

Media outlets around the world such as Sky Sports, ESPN, and Globo Esporte argue that, for Brazilian forward Pelé and players of his era, friendly matches were highly important fixtures and held more resonance, and the tallies accumulated should be included,[25][26][27] while journalist Hugh McIlvanney once described them as mere "profit-making excursions" that bore little "relevance to Pelé's reality as a great player",[28] and Jonathan Liew stated that many of the friendlies were "against up-country teams or down-at-heel invitational sides".[29] When Argentinian forward Messi was reported to have broken the record for most goals for a single club (644 for Spanish club Barcelona), Pelé's former club Santos denied the claim, releasing a statement saying 448 of Pelé's goals scored in friendlies had been uncounted,[30] and arguing that many of the goals came against "the best teams of all time",[31] statements Pelé agreed with by publicly changing his overall tally to 1,283 on Instagram.[32] When reporting the statistics of Messi, Barcelona argued that because Bican and Pelé, as well as Erwin Helmchen and Abe Lenstra, among others, scored the majority of their goals in leagues which were not played at a national level, their tallies should be questioned and potentially not counted.[33]

In 2021, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo was reported to have broken the record when he scored his 760th goal,[34][35][36] although it was widely acknowledged it was impossible to quantify with certainty as statistics from previous generations are often disputed,[19][37][38][39][40][41] as highlighted by football journalist Jonathan Wilson and Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport's editor Ivan Zazzaroni, who recognised the possibility that German striker Helmchen had scored a purported 981 goals.[17][42] Ronaldo himself addressed the issue, saying that "the world has changed since then and football has changed as well, but this doesn't mean that we can just erase history according to our interests".[43] There are other claims to the record; the Guinness World Records credits Pelé as the scorer of the "most career goals", with 1,279,[44] and Brazilian striker Romário celebrated scoring what he claimed was his 1,000th goal in 2007 but later admitted his tally included friendly matches;[45] they are reported to have scored 767 and 772 goals, respectively,[19][46][47][48][49] with Pelé's total including one goal for the military team and nine goals for the state team of São Paulo at the State Team Championship.[50][51] The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that Brazilian Arthur Friedenreich is "officially recognised" by FIFA to have scored 1,329 goals,[52] although there is little evidence for, and no documentation of, this claim.[44][53] In March 2022, Ronaldo surpassed Bican's purported tally of 805.[54]

Footballers with 500 or more goals

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Josef Bican is credited by FIFA with 805 goals.
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Pelé, with 762 official goals according to the IFFHS, held the world record for around 50 years.
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Imre Schlosser, the first footballer to score 500 goals.
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Alfredo Di Stéfano, the first South American to score 500.
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Lionel Messi scored the most goals for one club.
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Robert Lewandowski, the most recent to score 500.

According to the IFFHS and other media outlets, 23 players are credited with scoring 500 or more goals in top-level football competitions:

As of 5 June 2022[1]
Bold indicates players currently active.
* indicates player has scored at least 500 goals for a single club.[55]
Rank Player Club Country and other Total Years
League Cup Continental
1 Cristiano Ronaldo 497 51 150 115 813 2002–present
2 Lionel Messi* 480 70 133 81 764 2004–present
3 23x15px Pelé* 604 49 26 83 762 1957–1977
4 Romário 544 93 54 64 755 1985–2007
5 23x15px Ferenc Puskás 514 76 55 84 729 1943–1966
6 Josef Bican* 518 129 41 32 720 1931–1955
7 Jimmy Jones* 332 301 2 12 647 1947–1964
8 Gerd Müller* 405 92 69 68 634 1964–1981
9 Eusébio 422 97 59 41 619 1958–1981
10 Joe Bambrick 348 247 0 21 616 1926–1943
11 Robert Lewandowski 344 49 95 75 563 2004–present
12 Glenn Ferguson 313 242 6 0 561 1987–2011
13 Zlatan Ibrahimović 393 48 57 62 560 1999–present
14 Fernando Peyroteo* 464 72 3 14 553 1937–1949
15 Jimmy McGrory* 409 131 0 12 552 1922–1937
16 Uwe Seeler* 446 41 21 43 551 1954–1978
17 23x15px Alfredo Di Stéfano 376 55 70 29 530 1945–1966
18 György Sárosi 351 31 102 42 526 1930–1948
19 Luis Suárez 356 43 53 68 520 2005–present
20 23x15px Roberto Dinamite 476 8 5 22 511 1971–1992
21 Hugo Sánchez 390 49 38 30 507 1976–1997
22 Imre Schlosser 417 18 10 59 504 1905–1928
23 Franz Binder 296 93 87 26 502 1930–1949

RSSSF statistics

As the RSSSF uses different methodology from that of the IFFHS and other media outlets,[56] 63 players are credited with scoring 500 or more goals in matches taking into account competitions at all levels.[needs update]

As of 3 July 2022[3]
Bold indicates players currently active.
+ indicates some matches are unaccounted for and therefore the number of goals and matches could be higher.
Rank Player Goals Matches Ratio Years
1 Erwin Helmchen 987+ 577 1.71 1924–1951
2 Josef Bican 950+ 624 1.52 1930–1957
3 Ronnie Rooke 931+ 1028 0.91 1929–1961
4 Cristiano Ronaldo 833 1157 0.72 2002–present
5 Jimmy Jones 833+ 751 1.11 1944–1965
6 23x15px Ferenc Puskás 806 793 1.02 1943–1967
7 Lionel Messi 798 1031 0.77 2003–present
8 Ferenc Deák 795+ 511+ 1.56 1939–1959
9 Romário 784 1002 0.78 1984–2009
10 Abe Lenstra 783+ 843+ 0.93 1936–1964
11 23x15px Pelé 778 846 0.92 1956–1977
12 Tommy Lawton 741+ 824 0.9 1935–1957
13 Gerd Müller 735 793 0.93 1963–1981
14 Joe Bambrick 690+ 578 1.19 1925–1943
15 [[File:{{{flag alias-1928}}}|23x15px|border |alt=|link=Poland national football team]] Ernst Wilimowski 683+ 484 1.41 1932–1957
16 Sammy Hughes 650+ 694 0.94 1943–1963
17 Ferenc Bene 632 955 0.66 1959–1985
18 Robert Lewandowski 612 880 0.7 2004–present
19 Gyula Zsengellér 611 641 0.95 1931–1953
20 Boy Martin 611+ 527 1.16 1930–1947
21 Frederick Roberts 604+ 466 1.3 1922–1937
22 Fernando Peyroteo 598 369 1.62 1937–1949
23 Eusébio 591+ 631 0.94 1961–1978
24 Jimmy Greaves 589 841 0.7 1956–1980
25 Uwe Seeler 582 686 0.85 1954–1972
26 Zlatan Ibrahimović 581 996 0.58 1999–present
27 Túlio Maravilha 576 839 0.69 1987–2014
28 Imre Schlosser 575+ 463 1.24 1906–1928
29 Fritz Walter 574+ 572 1 1938–1959
30 Glenn Ferguson 569 1084 0.52 1987–2011
31 Franz Binder 569+ 431 1.32 1927–1949
32 Dixie Dean 568 612 0.93 1923–1940
33 Hughie Gallacher 565+ 712 0.79 1920–1940
34 Joe Smith 562+ 841 0.67 1908–1931
35 Hugo Sánchez 562 956 0.59 1976–1997
36 José Torres 561 615 0.91 1958–1980
37 Stan Mortensen 561+ 742 0.76 1938–1962
38 Sándor Kocsis 556 537 1.04 1946–1966
39 23x15px Isidro Lángara 553+ 444 1.25 1930–1948
40 Jimmy Kelly 552+ 975 0.57 1926–1955
41 John Aldridge 551+ 981 0.56 1976–1998
42 Jimmy McGrory 549 545 1.01 1922–1938
43 Tommy Dickson 546+ 780 0.7 1946–1966
44 Zico 546 798 0.68 1971–1994
45 Ferenc Szusza 544 598 0.91 1940–1961
46 József Takács 539 526 1.02 1920–1942
47 Jock Dodds 539 608 0.89 1932–1950
48 Dave Halliday 535+ 636 0.84 1920–1938
49 Luis Suárez 526 874 0.6 2005–present
50 Nándor Hidegkuti 524 677 0.77 1938–1958
51 23x15px Roberto Dinamite 519 869 0.6 1971–1992
52 Hans Krankl 518 725 0.71 1970–1989
53 23x15px Alfredo Di Stéfano 515 704 0.73 1945–1966
54 Joseph Mermans 514 638 0.81 1937–1960
55 Des Dickson 511 704 0.73 1964–1983
56 Gunnar Nordahl 510+ 587 0.87 1936–1961
57 Steve Bloomer 509+ 760 0.67 1890–1914
58 Trevor Thompson 509+ 580 0.88 1955–1969
59 György Sárosi 507 592 0.86 1929–1948
60 Willy van der Kuijlen 504 805 0.63 1962–1983
61 Roger Milla 503+ 905 0.56 1968–1996
62 Arthur Rowley 502+ 729 0.69 1941–1967
63 Lajos Tichy 500 610 0.82 1952–1971

See also

References

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