Best Scorers In Football History
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.
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... read more Even he's not the best scorer in football history, his ability to find the net in the so called "big games", makes him one the greatest scorers ever.
A five time world champion (three times with the National team of Brazil and two with his club Santos FC), 1,324 goals including friendlies and the first to do many new techincs in the field that other greats did after him, O'Rei Pelé will keep his GOAT status for ever.
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).
Gerhard "Gerd" Müller (3 November 1945 - 15 August 2021) was a German professional footballer. A prolific striker, especially in and around the six-yard box, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers and players in the history of the sport... read more 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.
His scoring talent was superb, especially in the most important matches.
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... 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".
Lionel Andrés "Leo" Messi was born on June 24, 1987. He is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for the American club, Inter Miami CF, in the MLS. Messi is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time. His birthplace is Rosario, Argentina. 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).
More than 800 goals in official games, more than 100 for Argentina, arguably one of the five greatest scorers in football history.
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.
Romário de Souza Faria, known simply as Romário, is a Brazilian politician, who previously achieved worldwide fame as a footballer. His 15 championship scoring titles (7 national league and 8 in regional leagues) is now a regarded a record. Josef Bican has 12 top division titles and two in second division, totally 14.
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.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (born February 5, 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward for Saudi Pro League club Al-Nassr 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.
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.
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.
The Newcomers
The last Hungarian goalgetter, gold medalist and top scorer of the football Olympic tournament of 1964.
He scored a total of 508 official goals.
Hungary was one of the first countries that developed football.It was first played in 1863, same year as England.Official top tier championships were organizated since 1901.Well documented statistics were kept and as Hungarians enjoyed offensive football a lot of players are included in highest goalscoring lists.
Officially, of the 27 players with more than 500 goals, 5 are Hungarians coming second after the Brazilians (6).
Takács was the second appeared after Schlosser, scored 523 total goals (including 26 in 32 caps with the National team).
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
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").
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).
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).
Updated stats credit him with 556 goals in official games and 1,185 including friendlies.
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.
Best Swedish player ever. The prolific striker scored 442 league goals in 504 caps and 43 in 33 for his National team.
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.
Alfredo Stéfano Di Stéfano Laulhé (July 4, 1926 - July 7, 2014) was an Argentine-born professional footballer and coach who played as a forward. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time. 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.
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.
James Peter Greaves MBE (20 February 1940 - 19 September 2021) was an English professional footballer who played as a forward. Regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time and one of England's best-ever players, he remains England's fifth-highest international goalscorer, with 44 goals, including... read more 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.
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.
Jimmy Jones was a very prolific North Irish striker of the mid-40s till mid-60s.
He scored 331 league goals in 289 appearences. He remains the leading goalscorer in Irish league history, and finished as league leading goalscorer in 6 different seasons, a record still unbroken.He played only one match with his National team scored three goals.
The total goals of his career were 646.
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...
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.