Best Scorers In Football History

The Top Ten
1 Josef Bican

The supreme marksman in football history is named Josef Bican.
Born in Vienna (1913), he was powerfully built and remarkably fast. His professional career started in Rapid Vienna and later, he moved to Chechoslovakia, where he mostly played for Slavia Prague till 1955.
Based on the only reliable source of football statistics, the Rec. Sport. Soccer Statistics Foundation, which has verified the at least data of his senior career, updated official information and combined others, show that the most precise stats should be :
GOALS IN OFFICIAL GAMES : 817
CAREER AMOUNT : 1,528
The respective appearances are 545 and 946.
His official recognition came in the 1990s and in 2000, Bican was awarded the "Golden Ball" by the IFFHS as the greatest scorer of the 20th century.

More than 950 goals in official games, 12 times top division top scorer (an unbreakable record).

He is the all time leading scorer with 805 goals in official matches(Romario 772,Pele 767etc)according to the official stats(RSSSF).Find a photo of him.

He scored a total of 1468 goals in only 918 games.People believe that Pele is the first.This is a great mistake (official infomation from RSSSF).

2 Gerd Muller

According to the RSSSF list with official matches, he's 5th with 735 goals in 793 (after Bican, Romario, Pele, Puskas).
The 'bomber won all the tophies (team and personal as top scorer) in all the tournaments he took part (both with Bayern M. and the National team). As far as I know he is the only one who managed to do so.

He scored 1461 goals in 1216 matches, being more effective than Pele.

3 Ferenc Puskas Ferenc Puskás (1 April 1927 – 17 November 2006) was a Hungarian footballer and manager, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time and the sport's first international superstar. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary, played four international matches for Spain and scored 514 goals in 529 matches in the Hungarian and Spanish leagues. He became an Olympic champion in 1952 and led his nation to the final of the 1954 World Cup. He won three European Cups (1959, 1960, 1966), 10 national championships (5 Hungarian and 5 Spanish Primera División) and 8 top individual scoring honors. In 1995, he was recognized as the greatest top division scorer of the 20th century ...read more.

The Galloping Major was honoured by the International Fedetation of Football History and Statistics in 1998 as the most successful top division goalscorer of all times. His record still stands.
The FIFA Puskas Award is awarded since 2009 to the player who is judged to have scored the most spectacular, beautiful or aesthetically pleasing goal, either male or female, over the calendar year in any tournament, league or division.
And as Pelé said "If he lived today, in the television and internet's age, Puskas would be the greatest footballer".

Super player, super scorer.
There are no official information about the total goals netted by Ferenc. I remind that his career started in 1943.Searcing the web for long time, I concluded that possible figures are 1176 goals in 1123 matches. If this is true (or close to the truth), he"s the 5th scorer in history after Bican (official), Muller (official), Friedenreich (unofficial) and Pele (official). Concerning the official matches, he's 4th (RSSSF).

4 Pele Edson Arantes do Nascimento, known as "Pelé", was a Brazilian professional footballer who played as a forward. In 1999 he was named Athlete of the Century by the International Olympic Committee and was included in the Time list of the 100 most important people of the 20th century. In 2000, Pelé was voted World Player of the Century by the International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS), and was one of the two joint winners of the FIFA Player of the Century.

The Brazilian super star is undeniably one of the greatest scorers in football history. His total of 1,281 goals during his active career and the tally of 767 strucks in official matches ranked him third of all times in both categories.
Concerning the top division officials of his career, the opinions of the two main international statistics orgnizations (RSSSF, IFFHS) are conflicting.
Finally, he's unofficially the third best all time scorer of the National Cups (if his 116 goals of Rio-Sao Paulo, Taca Prata and Taca Brazil tournaments are regarded in the above mentioned type of trophy).

5 Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi (born 24 June 1987) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Spanish club Barcelona. He is also known as one of the greatest football players of all time. He was born in Rosario, Argentina on June 24th, 1987.

The Argentinian magician met international success during the 2020s : South American Champion, World Champion and great prolificity for the national team surpassing the 100 goals with the national team and now getting close to 850 official goals (5th of all time). But the goal tally of Josef Bican or Erwin Helmchen is unreachable.

Great scorer at club level, but he doesn't manage to be as good as fans wanted with his National team (though a great soccer nation).

6 Ferenc Deak

The Hungarian striker scored 529 league goals (first and lower divisions) in only 380 cups and 29 in 20 for the National team. I believe he deserves the 2nd position as he was so prolific without playing in big clubs (as Muller or Puskas).

According to RSSSF Ferenc Deák scored 576+ goals. RSSSF recognize that official goals from regional league 1945 are missing (at least).
We really don't know the exact tally of his career.
According to one source I have it's 746 goals, but it's not verified if only official matches are included in this total.

Guinness World Records for most goals scored throughout his career including youth (ap. 2000 goals).

European recordman for a single championship(66 goals).Unbeatable.

7 Romário de Souza Faria Romário de Souza Faria, known simply as Romário, is a Brazilian politician, who previously achieved worldwide fame as a footballer.

Romário is regarded as one of the greatest scorers in football history and he definitely is.
His greatest achievement is the second place in the RSSSF rank of the players with the most official goals in football history. He has also 9 individual seasonal national champioship scoring titles coming jointly third after Bican (12 titles) and Pelé (11 titles).
But in the evaluation of a scorer except the number of goals, other parameters are also taken into account. Romário has the lower goalscoring rate of the RSSSF top ten list with the exception of C. Ronaldo (even lower). There is also a lack of international goalscoring titles (with club or national team) in his career. Finally, although he claimed for 1,000 total strucks (and other Brazilian sources 1,002 or 1,006), RSSSF recognised 968.

All this is bullshet.. how you put romario in range 10 while his records put him number 1.. are you crazy guys! Shame on you

8 Imre Schlosser

He was the first Hungarian icon, seven times league top scorer. He scored 417 league goals in 320 games for five clubs and 59 in 68 games for the National team.

The first player to score 1,000 goals.

9 Franz Binder

Nicknamed Bimbo, Binder was a prolific goalscorer who played for SK Rapid Wien in the period 1930-1949. The 6 feet 3 inches tall lanky forward scored a total of 1,006 goals in 756 appearences, though some reports are missing.
He also appeared at international level for both Austria and Germany, after his home country's annexation in 1938 and scored totally 26 goals in 28 caps.
RSSSF recognised 546 goals in official matches with no certain number of them ranked him 16th.
He was one of the most prolific scorers in football history with a goalscoring rate of 1.08 - 1.33 depending on the stats considered in the estimations.

Most recent estimations are for a total of 1151 goals.

The Austrian striker scored 1006 goals in 750 matches.

He scored more but full reposts are missing because of th WWII.

10 Fernando Peyroteo

The. great Portuege striker (born in Amgola) scored a total of 665 goals in 417 games been one of the most prolific scorers in football history. 332 of them in 197 appearences in the National Championship. He didn't become famous as most of his career was during the 40s ( no World. Cups etc.).

He scored around 300 and something goals in 100 games

The Contenders
11 Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Serie A club Juventus and captains the Portugal national team.

The number of goals do not make the best scorer. Goal to game rate and scoring titles are of equal importance.

12 Ernst Wilimowski

Ernest Wilimowski, an ethnic German, was born in Kattowitz, Upper Silesia, then part of the German Empire, in 1916. After the WWI Upper Silesia was partitioned and he became a Polish citizen. His professional career in Poland lasted 5 years including 21 goals in 22 caps for his National team. He was the first player to score 4 goals in a World Cup match (1938).
After the division of Poland in WWII, Ernst (now) re-took the German citizenchip and had a succesfull career in Germany till 1959. The team mate Fritz Walter, said of him: "He's probably the only player in the world who's had more goals than chances."
He still holds the record of the German Cup (14 goals, 1942).
According to RSSSF, he scored 554 goals in official matches ranked 12th, but the overall total is not verified yet. Of the verified stats his goalscoring rate is 1.00 (appr).

The German-Polish striker scored a total of 1175 goals (unverified) and is one of a few players that scored 10 goals in an official single match.

13 Eusebio Eusébio da Silva Ferreira was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. Eusébio is considered by many as one of the greatest footballers of all time. During his professional career, he scored 733 goals in 745 matches.

"The Black Tiger of Mozambique" Eusebio Ferreira Da Silva is the greatest footballer ever to born in The Africa Continent and for many the finest player ever to play for Portugal. He was a striker in the center-forward mold having fearsome shots, powerful stamina and strength.
The number of goals that he bagged is still contraversial. Although RSSSF recognise 552 in official outings, most other reliable sources increase this number to 621(or 622 including a goal in an indoor football game) in 638. His tally including friedlies seems to be 807 in 813 matches. These stats give him a strike rate of 0.98-0.99.
Finally, the few sources that claim for an overall of more than a thousand, possibly include unofficial friedlies (called "training games").

It's not well verified the number of total goals netted by Eusebio (my previous comment concerned official goals and it was from a Portuegese source).
He scored for Benfica a total of 727 goals (he played there 15 of the 20 years of his career).An unofficial total of 1137 goals can be the maximum.

The "black panther" scored a total of 638 goals in only 614 games.

14 Arthur Friedenreich

The story of the football career of Arthur Friedenreich has some interesting facts.
Firsty, he was quite 'lucky' to have German father as racism was present in Brazil the first decades of the 20th century. The amazing scoring talent of the typically black Arthur wasn't lost and he is still the youngest top scorer of the championship aged 17.
His scoring tally was kept carefully by his father and his best friend but lost in the 60s. Arthur was already surffering from Alzheimer disease.
RSSSF recognised 557 goals in 562 outings and IFFHS 354 top division goals in 323.
His goalscoring rate was 0.99-1.10.

"The Tiger" scored 1329 goals in 1239 caps. If these reports are true, he is the greatest Brazilian scorer.

15 Gunnar Nordahl

Best Swedish player ever. The prolific striker scored 442 league goals in 504 caps and 43 in 33 for his National team.

16 Sándor Kocsis

Updated stats credit him with 556 goals in official games and 1,185 including friendlies.

17 Abe Lenstra

Dutch great.He scored 700 goals in 730 matches (domestic leagues-top division and lower or regional championships before the start of the National league) and 33 in 47 for the National team.For those reasons his total of about 830 goals (unverified) in official matches is not recognized by RSSSF (he could be even first of all times).

18 Isidro Langara

The Spanish striker was one of the most prolific scorers in football history netted 508 goals in 399 club appearences in three countries (Spain,

The Spanish striker was one of the most prolific scorers in football history netted 508 goals in 399 club appearences in three countries (Spain, Mexico, Argentina).

Isidro Lángara Galarraga is regarded as the best Spanish scorer ever. Originally from the Basque Country, he was famed for his athleticism.
His tally of official strucks are not well verified but were 525-539, depending on the source and not recognised from RSSSF till now.

The other two countries were Mexico and Argentina.

19 Gyula Zsengeller

Gyula Zsengellér, the famous striker of the 1930s-1940s, is not any more the third top division scorer of all times, as he's surpassed from Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. But it's worth to mention that his goalscoring ratio is quite higher compared to the two legends of the present (1.06 compared to 0.93 of Messi and 0.77 of Ronaldo).
Additionally, his tally of 522 official strikes is not the real one as goals of three seasons of his career (1933-1935,1949-1950), are missing from RSSSF.

More than 600 goals in official games and 1,000 including friendlies.

Great Hungarian striker, very prolific scorer.

20 Uwe Seeler

Uwe Seeler is regarded as one of the greatest German players of all times and in the best 50 worldwide of 20th century.
During his career he struck 406 league goals and a total of 575 in 649 official outings (ranked 9th by RSSSF).
The overall tally of his career was 809 goals in 883 games.

Great player, great scorer.

21 Alfredo Di Stefano

Regarded by many as the greatest all-round footballer of all time, Di Stefano was a footballing phenomenon.
Although apparently a deep-lying centre forward, his balance, vision, and passing skills were those of a midfielder, and his overall contribution to the team play was unselfish and inspirational.
During his professional career (1945-1966), he played in both Europe and Latin America, honoured with 8 individual top tier goalscoring titles and netted as many as 893 strikes in 1,126 outings (including friendlies).
"The Blond Arrow" will forever be in the football history books as one of the greatest players ever, and rightly so.

Amazing scorer at real madrid

22 Jimmy McGrory

The Celtic legend scored 410 goals in 408 league games and 6 in 7 cups for Scotland.

23 Jimmy Greaves

James Peter Greaves is a former English striker, the highest goalscorer in the history of English top-flight football (357 goals). He finished as the First Division's top scorer in six seasons.
He caped 57 times with his National team (1959-1967) netted 44 times, including 6 hat-tricks (a record).
According to RSSSF, his career strucks in official outings were 511 with a goalscoring rate of 0.71.

The best English scorer.

Better than all the rest

24 Just Fontaine

Just Fontaine was a French striker, born in Marrakech, Morocco.
He moved to France in 1953 where he played till 1962 forced to retire early, aged 29 due to a reccuring injury.
He was a very prolific scorer, as he netted 227 league goals in 248 club appearences and 30 for the National team of France in only 21 matches (including the legendary record in 1958 World Cup).
His goalscoring rate in official matches was 0.95.
FIFA and World Soccer included him in the best 100 players of 20th century.

25 Marco van Basten Marcel "Marco" van Basten is a Dutch football manager and former football player, who played for Ajax and Milan, as well as the Netherlands national team, in the 1980s and early '90s as a forward.

The great Dutch striker, netted 236 top division goals in 280 appearences (Ajax, Milan) and a total of 314 in official matches with a goalscoring rate of 0.71.
Unfortunatelly, his career ended aged 31 due to severe injuries.

I think that you've started deleting legal votes like some others...

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