Who Is All-Time UCL Top Scorer?
Who is currently in the lead for the record for most goals scored in Europe’s top club competition? We’ve looked at the best performers.
There have been some of the greatest goal scorers in history compete in the Champions League. It is a stage that has seen numerous football legends perform because it is the best club championship in Europe and possibly the entire world.
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Striking sensations such as Raul and Andriy Shevchenko dominated during the 1990s and 2000s, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have taken the art of scoring to a whole new level.
THEEAGLE takes a look at the all-time top scorers in the competition’s history, dating back to the inaugural European Cup in 1955.
Who is the all-time UCL top scorer?
Cristiano Ronaldo has scored the most goals in Champions League history, as seen in the table below (including the European Cup). His bitter adversary Lionel Messi is right behind him.
Between those two and the rest, with Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski coming in third, there is a wide gap.
Karim Benzema follows in fourth, while Raul completes the top five, with the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thomas Muller and Thierry Henry among the best of the rest.
List of Champions League/European Cup all-time top 20 goalscorers
|
Rank |
Player |
Goals |
Appearances |
|
1 |
Cristiano Ronaldo |
140 |
183 |
|
2 |
Lionel Messi |
129 |
162 |
|
3 |
Robert Lewandowski |
91 |
111 |
|
4 |
Karim Benzema |
88 |
147 |
|
5 |
Raul |
71 |
142 |
|
6 |
Ruud van Nistelrooy |
56 |
73 |
|
7 |
Thomas Muller |
53 |
139 |
|
8 |
Thierry Henry |
50 |
112 |
|
9 |
Alfredo Di Stefano |
49 |
58 |
|
=10 |
Andriy Shevchenko |
48 |
100 |
|
=10 |
Zlatan Ibrahimovic |
48 |
124 |
|
12 |
Eusebio |
46 |
65 |
|
=12 |
Filippo Inzaghi |
46 |
81 |
|
14 |
Mohamed Salah |
44 |
78 |
|
=14 |
Didier Drogba |
44 |
92 |
|
16 |
Neymar |
43 |
81 |
|
17 |
Alessandro Del Piero |
42 |
89 |
|
18 |
Sergio Aguero |
41 |
79 |
|
19 |
Kylian Mbappe |
40 |
60 |
|
20 |
Ferenc Puskas |
36 |
41 |
|
21 |
Erling Haaland |
33 |
25 |
*Correct as of games played on March 15th, 2023
**The list takes into consideration data from 1955-present
***Players in bold are still active
The majority of the players on the list of all-time goal scorers currently play or formerly played in the present Champions League era, which began in 1992 and introduced extra continental matches to the current schedule. Particularly, 17 of the 20 players on the aforementioned list played starting in the mid-1990
Yet, two players who competed in the era before the Champions League (when the competition was known as the European Cup) still stand out, with former Real Madrid star Alfredo Di Stefano and legendary Benfica midfielder Eusebio both appearing in and near the top 10.
Also among the top 20 is Ferenc Puskas, a star for Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s. Before Mohamed Salah beat him out for the top spot, former Bayern Munich attacker Gerd Muller was among the top 20. No player even comes close to Gerd Muller’s incredible goals-per-game ratio of 0.95, despite being nudged out.
Messi presently has a goal-to-game ratio of 0.8, which is unquestionably the greatest in the modern period, whereas Puskas’ was 0.85 and Di Stefano’s was 0.84.
