List of top association football goal scorers
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In top-level football competitions, 23 players have scored 500 or more goals over the course of their career in both
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and international football, according to research by the , first published in 2007. Taking into account competitions of all levels, 72 players have reached the milestone according to research by the , an organisation described by German newspaper '' Der Spiegel'' as a "Wikipedia of football statistics". Hungarian
Imre Schlosser Imre Schlosser (also known as Imre Schlosser-Lakatos; 11 October 1889 – 18 July 1959) was a Hungarian footballer of Danube Swabian ancestry who played as a forward. He still holds the record as the highest goalscorer in the history of the H ...
was the first to reach the 500-goal mark, doing so in 1927 shortly before his retirement. Eight players have accomplished the feat at a single club, among them
Josef Bican Josef "Pepi" Bican (25 September 1913 – 12 December 2001) was an Austrian-Czech professional footballer who played as a striker. He is the second-most prolific goalscorer in official matches in recorded history according to Rec.Sport.Soccer ...
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Slavia Prague Sportovní klub Slavia Praha – fotbal (Sports Club Slavia Prague – Football, ), commonly known as Slavia Praha or Slavia Prague, is a Czech professional football club in Prague. Founded in 1892, they are the second most successful club in ...
), Jimmy Jones ( Glenavon),
Jimmy McGrory James Edward McGrory (26 April 1904 – 20 October 1982) was a Scottish footballer who played for Celtic and Clydebank as a forward and then went on to manage Kilmarnock before returning to Celtic as manager after the end of the Second Wor ...
( Celtic),
Lionel Messi Lionel Andrés Messi (; born 24 June 1987), also known as Leo Messi, is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for club Paris Saint-Germain and captains the Argentina national team. Widely regarded as one of the ...
(
Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
), Gerd Müller ( Bayern Munich), Pelé ( Santos),
Fernando Peyroteo Fernando Baptista de Seixas Peyroteo de Vasconcelos (10 March 1918 – 28 November 1978) was a Portuguese footballer who played as a striker. He spent his entire professional career with Sporting CP, scoring 544 goals in all competitions, winn ...
(
Sporting CP Sporting Clube de Portugal, founded Sporting Club de Portugal (), otherwise referred to as Sporting CP, often known abroad as Sporting Lisbon , is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Lisbon. It is best known for the professional foot ...
), and
Uwe Seeler Uwe Seeler (; 5 November 1936 – 21 July 2022) was a German footballer and football official. As a striker, he was a prolific scorer for Hamburger SV and also made 72 appearances for the West Germany national team. Widely regarded as one of ...
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). Of these eight, Messi scored the most, with 672 goals between his debut in 2004 and his departure in 2021. FIFA, the international
governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ...
of football, has never released a list detailing the highest goalscorers and does not keep official records; in 2020, it recognised Bican, an Austrian-Czech dual international who played between the and the , as the record scorer with an estimated 805 goals, although
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, the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
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,
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, and ''
O Jogo ''O Jogo'' (; English: ''The Game'') is a Portuguese daily sport newspaper published in Porto. History and profile ''O Jogo'' was first published on 22 February 1985 by the Jornal de Notícias company in Porto, and it is seen as appealing mai ...
'' all acknowledge that Bican's tally includes goals scored for
reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...
s and in unofficial international matches.
UEFA Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; french: Union des associations européennes de football; german: Union der europäischen Fußballverbände) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs f ...
, the governing body for European football, ranks him as the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues with 518 goals, narrowly ahead of Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. The RSSSF credits Bican with 948 goals, a tally which includes goals scored in winter tournaments, as well as when selected to represent regional and city teams, and the
Football Association of the Czech Republic The Football Association of the Czech Republic ( cs, Fotbalová asociace České republiky; FAČR) or colloquially the ''Czech Football Association'' is the governing body of association football in the Czech Republic based in Prague. It organiz ...
claims a total of 821. Spanish newspapers '' Marca'' and ''
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'' state that both Bican and Pelé scored 762 goals. Such is the difficulty for statisticians and media outlets to determine which goals to include that the topic has spurred controversy; Bican once walked out of a gala held in his honour by the IFFHS after the organisation had excluded war-time goals from his tally, although it later recognised 229 goals he had scored during the period. Media outlets around the world such as
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,
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, and Globo Esporte argue that, for Brazilian forward Pelé and players of his era, friendly matches were highly important fixtures and held more resonance, and the tallies accumulated should be included, while journalist Hugh McIlvanney once described them as mere "profit-making excursions" that bore little "relevance to Pelé's reality as a great player", and
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stated that many of the friendlies were "against up-country teams or down-at-heel invitational sides". When Argentinian forward Messi was reported to have broken the record for most goals for a single club (644 for Spanish club Barcelona), Pelé's former club Santos denied the claim, releasing a statement saying 448 of Pelé's goals scored in friendlies had been uncounted, and arguing that many of the goals came against "the best teams of all time", statements Pelé agreed with by publicly changing his overall tally to 1,283 on Instagram. When reporting the statistics of Messi, Barcelona argued that because Bican and Pelé, as well as Erwin Helmchen and
Abe Lenstra Abe Minderts Lenstra (27 November 1920 – 2 September 1985) was a Dutch footballer and national football icon in the 1950s who played as a forward. He is regarded as one of the greatest players ever to hail from the Netherlands. He was als ...
, among others, scored the majority of their goals in leagues which were not played at a national level, their tallies should be questioned and potentially not counted, while goals scored during war-time, in lower-tiers and regional divisions, by players such as Bican, Ferenc Deák, Puskás, Seeler, Muller, Túlio Maravilha, and
Robert Lewandowski Robert Lewandowski (; born 21 August 1988) is a Polish professional footballer who plays as a striker for La Liga club Barcelona and captains the Poland national team. Recognised for his positioning, technique and finishing, Lewandowski is co ...
, are also questioned. In 2021, Portuguese forward
Cristiano Ronaldo Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro (; born 5 February 1985) is a Portuguese professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Portugal national team. He is currently a free agent. Widely regarded as one of the greatest p ...
was reported to have broken the record when he scored his 760th goal, although it was widely acknowledged it was impossible to quantify with certainty as statistics from previous generations are often disputed, as highlighted by football journalist Jonathan Wilson and Italian newspaper ''Corriere dello Sport'''s editor Ivan Zazzaroni, who recognised the possibility that German striker Helmchen had scored a purported 981 goals. Ronaldo himself addressed the issue, saying that "the world has changed since then and football has changed as well, but this doesn't mean that we can just erase history according to our interests". There are other claims to the record; the
Guinness World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...
credits Pelé as the scorer of the "most career goals", with 1,279, and Brazilian striker Romário celebrated scoring what he claimed was his 1,000th goal in 2007 but later admitted his tally included friendly matches; they are reported to have scored 767 and 772 goals, respectively, with Pelé's total including one goal for the military team and nine goals for the
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team of
São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...
at the State Team Championship. The ''
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'' notes that Brazilian Arthur Friedenreich is "officially recognised" by FIFA to have scored 1,329 goals, although there is little evidence for, and no documentation of, this claim. In March 2022, Ronaldo surpassed Bican's purported tally of 805.


Footballers with 500 or more goals

According to the IFFHS and other media outlets, 23 players are credited with scoring 500 or more goals in top-level football competitions: :Bold indicates players currently active. : * indicates player has scored at least 500 goals for a single club.


RSSSF statistics

As the RSSSF uses different methodology from that of the IFFHS and other media outlets to determine which goals to include, 72 players are credited with scoring 500 or more goals in matches taking into account competitions at all levels: :Bold indicates players currently active. :+ indicates number is a lower bound - player may have scored more.


See also

* List of top international men's football goalscorers by country *
List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps In men's association football, a cap is traditionally awarded in international football to a player making an official match appearance for their national team. In total, over 600 players have played in 100 or more international matches. The re ...
*
List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals In total, 76 male footballers to date have scored at least 50 goals with their national team at senior level, according to FIFA documents and RSSSF statistics. Since October 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been also publish ...
*
List of men's footballers with the most official appearances This is a list of footballers who have played at least 1,000 official football matches at all age levels: regarding junior levels, only the matches with national teams are counted, because such data for club levels cannot be found for the majo ...
* List of footballers who achieved hat-trick records * List of world association football records *
List of goalscoring goalkeepers Goals scored by goalkeepers are a somewhat rare event in football. Goalkeepers spend the majority of a match in the penalty area of their own team, a marked area around the goal they are defending in which they can handle the ball, in order to ...
* Lists of hat-tricks in football


References


Notes

{{notelist, 30em Association football records and statistics Lists of association football players Career achievements of association football players