Top 10 all-time goalscorers: Cristiano Ronaldo eyes 1000 goals as Lionel Messi continues to break records
Cristiano Ronaldo is 41 years old and Lionel Messi is nowhere near 40, but they are still scoring goals for fun as the GOAT debate continues…
Messi won the World Cup after leading Argentina to glory in Qatar in 2022, but former Manchester United star Ronaldo, who is still missing out on World Cup success, continues to claim he is the best in Saudi Arabia.
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Both are football champions and still score goals at unbelievable rates for Al Nassr and Inter Miami respectively, as well as on the international stage.
But it is Ronaldo who sits well above his rival at the top of the list of top goalscorers, as he approaches the 1000 goal mark.
No one has scored more FIFA-recognised goals than Portugal captain Ronaldo, who netted his 900th strike for club and country against Croatia at the Nations League in September 2024.
Messi has surpassed many famous names throughout his illustrious career, but Ronaldo remains at the top.
Both goalscorers have more to offer before they retire, with Luis Suarez and Harry Kane the only active players who could come close to the top ten goalscorers of all time.
Suarez has reached the milestone of 600 goals, while England’s leading goalscorer Kane has more than 500 goals in his career so far.
According to IFFHS statistics, here is a list of the top ten goalscorers of all time…
10. Joe Bambrick – 626 goals
Northern Irish striker Bambrick will be a name not many will have heard of these days.
The former Chelsea and Walsall striker played between 1926 and 1939, scoring his 600+ goals during that time.
Bambrick scored 33 goals in 61 games for Chelsea, all in the old First Division.
He also found the back of the net 11 times in 11 games for Northern Ireland at the international level.
9. Gerd Müller – 634 goals
The striker’s most important goal out of the 68 he scored for West Germany was the one that won the World Cup final in 1974 against the Netherlands in Munich.
During an epic 15-year spell at Bayern, Muller scored a record 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga appearances and 66 goals in 74 European appearances.
His record of 40 goals in one Bundesliga season stood for 49 years, and was broken by Robert Lewandowski in May 2021.
Kane is now playing his football in Germany and is very close to joining Lewandowski in breaking Muller’s record.
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8. Jimmy Jones – 639 goals
Similar to No.10 on this list, Bambrick, Jones is another former Northern Irish striker who loved to score goals.
He played from 1943 until 1965, playing for 10 different teams and scoring over 600 goals in his career.
The striker, who died in 2014, spent time at Fulham and scored many of his goals at Glenavon.
Jones also made three appearances for the Northern Ireland national team.
7. Robert Lewandowski – 697 goals
If Lewandowski had played in a different generation than Messi and Ronaldo, he would have been more appreciated than him.
The Polish player is his country’s top scorer and is a legend at home.
He is also Bayern Munich’s second top scorer behind the great Muller, not bad on a free transfer from Borussia Dortmund.
The 37-year-old left Bayern in the summer of 2023 to switch to Barcelona, where he continued to score despite his advanced age.
Lewandowski scored 120 times for Barca in four seasons, while the Pole is also the third-highest scorer in Champions League history.
Maybe when he retires, we’ll all appreciate how good Lewandowski was.
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6. Josef Bican – 722 goals
The legendary striker scored 395 goals in 217 games for Slavia Prague from 1937 to 1948.
He also starred for several clubs in the Czech Republic, racking up an unbelievable amount of goals.
This means that Bican has been the leading scorer in football for decades.
Although he is said to have scored nearly 1,500 goals in total during his playing days, almost half of those were recognized by FIFA.
5. Ferenc Puskas – 725 goals
A Hungarian icon, Puskas now lends his name to the best goal award each year.
The striker made a name for himself in Budapest before cementing his position at Real Madrid.
He scored more than 150 goals for Los Blancos, averaging about one goal a game.
Puskas’ two most famous goals came in Hungary’s 6-3 win over England, with the 1953 match at Wembley later dubbed the ‘Game of the Century’.
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4. Romario – 756 goals
Romario led Brazil to victory in the 1994 World Cup, scoring five goals in the tournament.
He also enjoyed a stellar career in many top clubs around the world.
This striker played for 10 teams in total, playing more than 700 games.
His time at PSV gave him great success in front of goal as he scored 98 goals in just 110 games.
Romario also found the back of the net for his country 55 times in 70 games.
3. Pele – 762 goals
One of the greatest ever to win the World Cup three times.
Pele only played for two clubs while leading Brazil to glory throughout his career.
He scored almost a goal per game during his 656 competitive appearances for Santos, although he claims to have scored more than 1,000 goals.
However, it is widely accepted that hundreds of those goals came during tours or friendlies. Pele would tell you otherwise!
The icon passed away in 2022, but his legacy lives on in the world of football.
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2. Lionel Messi – 924 goals
A true legend, Messi has won many trophies to go along with his goals, including a record eight Ballon d’Or awards.
Now with Inter Miami in the United States, the Argentinian has a few years left to add to his impressive tally and is now over 900 career goals.
Messi scored seven times at the World Cup in Qatar, two of which in the penalty shootout win over France in the final certainly proved to be the most special of his career.
He scored over 650 goals for Barcelona before moving to PSG where he scored a further 32.
The icon now plays in the American MLS and continues to score goals and win trophies, while also playing with Argentina in the international stage, helping them win the 2024 Copa America.
He broke the World Cup goal scoring record at the 2026 tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico.
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1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 976 goals
A contemporary of Portugal, Manchester United and Real Madrid, Ronaldo has conquered everything in the game and is still going strong today.
Ronaldo is the only player to score in six different World Cups – and he’s not done talking about early retirement, according to the man himself.
In fact, Ronaldo crossed even more boundaries, getting the most expensive contract in the history of the sport Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr.
He reached the milestone of 500 league goals during his time at the club and hit his 100th goal in January.
Internationally, he has gone on to make 233 international appearances – a world record – and has not stopped scoring goals, netting 146 times for his country.
Ronaldo became the first player to score 900 goals and is on his way to 1000 before he retires at the age of 41, with his 976th goal coming in a World Cup play-off game as Portugal won 2-1 over Croatia.
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