The ultimate aim on a football pitch is to win matches, and that can only be accomplished by outscoring opponents.
The art of goalscoring is not easy and not many players are capable of scoring regularly. But we’ve seen several players throughout history who became famous due to their goalscoring prowess.
These players score for fun and never get tired of putting the ball in the back of the net.
In this post, FootballOrbit brings you a list of the 15 all time highest goalscorers in the history of football.
15. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (570 goals)
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is famous for his acrobatic strikes and volleys, powerful long-range shots, and excellent technique and ball control. He is regarded as one of the greatest strikers of all time.
He is one of the most decorated footballers in the world, having won 34 trophies in his career.
Furthermore, he is Sweden’s all-time leading goalscorer with 62 goals.
Ibrahimovic’s 35-yard bicycle kick goal for Sweden against England in 2013 won the FIFA Puskas Award, and is often considered one of the best goals of all time.
14. Tulio Maravilha (575 goals)
Tulio Maravilha is a journeyman striker who played for more than 30 clubs in his career. He never played for more than one season at most of his teams!!
His best years were while he was at Botafogo, where he was the Brazilian league top scorer 3 times (1989, 1994 and 1995) and won the 1995 Campeonato Brasileiro.
Moreso, Maravilha amazingly netted 13 goals in just 15 appearances for the Brazilian national team.
13. Uwe Seeler (575 goals)
A prolific scorer for Hamburger and West Germany, Uwe Seeler is regarded as one of the greatest players in German football history.
He was a gifted, powerful, and prolific striker who, among other things, was also renowned for his leadership, consistency, overhead kicks, and aerial ability.
12. Ferenc Deak (576 goals)
Ferenc Deak was an Hungarian striker who played for clubs such as Szentlőrinci AC, Ferencváros and Budapesti Dózsa.
Amazingly, he scored 6 goals on his professional football debut!
At international level, he scored 29 goals in just 20 games for Hungary.
Nicknamed “Bamba”, Deak topped the European top scoring list 3 times: 1945/46 (66 goals), 1946/47 (48 goals) and 1948/49 (59 goals).
His best season was the 1945/46 league season, when he scored 66 goals in 34 matches!
11. Robert Lewandowski (612 goals)
Famous for his positioning, technique and finishing, Lewandowski is considered one of the best strikers of all time.
He is one of only two players — alongside Johan Cruyff — to win an European Treble (league, cup and UEFA Champions League) while being the highest goalscorer in all three competitions!!!
Lewandowski won the Best FIFA Men’s Player Award in 2020 and 2021.
Moreover, he won the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year Award in 2020 and is the 3rd-highest goalscorer in the history of the Champions League.
The Polish striker is also 2nd-highest goalscorer of all time in the Bundesliga (only behind Gerd Muller) and is the league’s all-time leading foreign goalscorer.
While playing for Bayern in 2015, Lewandowski scored 5 goals in less than 9 minutes against Wolfsburg!!!
It was the fastest by any player in Bundesliga history, as well as any major European football league — for which he was awarded four Guinness World Records.
Moreover, he won the Bundesliga Top Scorer Award in 7 seasons, most prominently in the 2020/21 where he scored 41 goals — breaking Gerd Müller’s previous Bundesliga record of 40 goals set in 1971/72.
10. Joe Brambick (616 goals)
Joe Brambick was a prolific goalscorer in the Irish League and the Football League. He is adept at getting into good scoring positions and athletic enough to make the final touch count.
The famous catch-phrase “Head, heel, or toe, slip it to Joe” is in reference to his goalscoring prowess.
Brambick spent the best years of his career at Linfield, where he scored 286 league goals in just 183 matches.
50 of these was netted in the 1930/31 campaign, which was the highest in the world that year.
Also, he played for Chelsea between 1935 to 1938, netting 34 goals.
9. Eusebio (619 goals)
Nicknamed the “Black Panther”, Eusebio is considered one of the greatest players of all time as well as Benfica’s best player ever.
He was known for his speed, technique, athleticism and ferocious right-footed shot.
He helped Portugal reach 3rd place at the 1966 FIFA World Cup, where he was the top goalscorer of the tournament with 9 goals.
Eusebio won the Ballon d’Or in 1965 and was runner-up in 1962 and 1966. He is Benfica’s all-time top scorer with 473 goals in 440 competitive matches.
Moreso, in 1968, he became the first ever player to win the European Golden Boot, a feat he replicated in 1973.
8. Gerd Muller (634 goals)
Nicknamed “Der Bomber”, Gerd Muller was renowned for his clinical finishing and is widely regarded as one of the greatest goalscorers in soccer history.
Incredibly, he scored 10 goals at the 1970 FIFA World Cup for West Germany where he won the Golden Boot as top goalscorer, before winning the 1970 Ballon d’Or.
Muller also scored 4 goals at the 1974 World Cup, including the winning goal in the final.
At international level with West Germany, he scored 68 goals in 62 appearances.
Additionally, Gerd Muller is one of the only 9 players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the UEFA Champions League and the Ballon d’Or.
7. Jimmy Jones (647 goals)
Jimmy Jones is the all time goalscorer in the history of the Irish League football, with a total of 647 goals.
He also holds the record for scoring the most goals in a season (74).
In a career spanning almost 20 years, Jones mostly played for Northern Irish clubs.
6. Ferenc Puskas (729 goals)
In the 1950s, Ferenc Puskas was a prominent member of both the all-conquering Real Madrid and Hungary teams.
He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary.
Known as the “Galloping Major”, Puskas was recognized as the greatest top division scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS in 1995.
5. Pele (762 goals)
Pele is regarded by many as the greatest footballer ever and is nicknamed “O Rei” (The King).
He was a prolific goalscorer, known for his ability to anticipate opponents in the area and accurately finish off chances with either foot.
Pele averaged almost a goal per game throughout his career.
Furthermore, he won 3 FIFA World Cups titles: 1958, 1962 and 1970 — the only player to do so.
He is Santos’ all-time top goalscorer with 643 goals in 659 games. In a golden era for the club, he led Santos to the 1962 and 1963 Copa Libertadores and to the 1962 and 1963 Intercontinental Cup.
4. Romario (775 goals)
A prolific striker, Romario was renowned for his clinical finishing and is one of the few players to score at least 100 goals for 3 different clubs.
Considered one of the greatest players of all time, Romario starred for Brazil in their 1994 FIFA World Cup triumph — winning the Golden Ball as the Best Player of the Tournament.
He was named FIFA World Player of the Year that same year and came 5th in the FIFA Player of the Century internet poll in 1999.
Romario is a genius in the penalty area. His rapid speed over short distances (aided by his low centre of gravity) easily took him away from defenders, and he was renowned for his trademark toe poke finish.
With 55 goals in 70 appearances, Romario is the fourth-highest goalscorer for the Brazil national team.
Lastly, he is third on the all-time list of Brazilian league’s top scorers, with 155 goals.
3. Lionel Messi (799 goals)
Arguably The Greatest Of All Time (G.O.A.T), Messi has won a record 7 Ballon d’Or awards.
With Barcelona, he won a club-record 34 trophies, and won the 2021 Copa América and the 2022 FIFA World Cup for Argentina.
A prolific goalscorer and creative playmaker, Messi holds the records for most goals in La Liga (474), most hat-tricks in La Liga (36) and the UEFA Champions League (8), and most assists in La Liga (192) and the Copa América (17).
He also has the most international goals by a South American male footballer (98).
Moreso, Messi has scored the most goals by a player for a single club (672 for Barca).
2. Josef Bican (805 goals)
Josef Bican claimed to have scored over 1000 goals in his career, but 805 is officially recognised.
He is the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues, with 518 goals.
Bican was a member of the Austrian Wunderteam of the 1930s and represented the nation at the 1934 FIFA World Cup, where they reached the semi-finals.
The striker was a tall and powerful player, with the technical ability to play with both feet and had considerable pace.
In his prime, he was reportedly capable of running 100 metres in 10.8 seconds, which was not far off the leading sprinters of his time.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (828 goals)
The ultimate goalscoring machine, Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the greatest goalscorer ever.
Initially, he started his career as a fleet-footed winger but later became a striker.
As he matured, CR7 underwent a major physical transformation, developing a muscular body type that allowed him to retain possession of the ball under pressure and strong legs that afforded him outstanding jumping ability.
Furthermore, his strength and jumping ability, combined with his elevation, heading accuracy and height gave him an edge in winning aerial duels.
These attributes allow him to function as a target-man and make him an aerial goal threat in the penalty area.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Ronaldo has won 5 Ballon d’Or awards and has 32 trophies in his career so far.
