Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated a new milestone this week after reaching 900 goals in his senior career.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner brought up his 900th goal in Portugal’s 2-1 win over Croatia in the Nations League, extending his record as the leading scorer in men’s international football.
Ronaldo is one of 24 players to have scored 500+ career goals for club and country at the top level of football, but who are the highest goalscorers in the sport’s history?
Which footballer has scored the most goals?
5. Ferenc Puskás (724)
Ferenc Puskás is widely recognised as one of the greatest footballers of all time, having excelled for some of the greatest club and international teams the game has seen.
Part of the ‘Mighty Magyars’ Hungary team that won Olympic gold in 1952 and reached the World Cup final two years later, Puskás scored 84 goals in 85 appearances for the national side. He later won five caps for Spain.
The forward netted 382 goals in 367 appearances for Budapest Honvéd FC in his homeland, before joining Real Madrid. In the Spanish capital, he formed part of a golden era where he won five league titles and three European Cups. He twice scored hat-tricks in European Cup finals, including four goals in a famous 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960. A four-time winner of the Pichichi Trophy, he scored 242 times in 262 games for the Spanish side.
4. Romario (755)
Romario’s reputation as one of the finest finishers of all time is well deserved, with the Brazilian a ruthless penalty-box poacher at his peak. He scored 55 times in just 70 caps for the national team and won the Golden Ball as Brazil won the 1994 World Cup in the USA.
He scored over a century of goals for Vasco de Gama, Flamengo and PSV Eindhoven, alongside a prolific period in Barcelona as part of Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’. Romario scored 30 goals in 33 league appearances during his debut season at the Camp Nou to win the Pichichi Trophy as La Liga’s leading scorer.
🇧🇷 Romário doing Romário things…
Happy birthday, @RomarioOnze! 🥳#UCL | @PSV pic.twitter.com/qROmtXYqIs
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) January 29, 2020
90s Hitmen: Romario, a Brazilian goalscoring genius
3. Pele (762)
Pele famously scored 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, to earn himself a Guinness World Record, though only 762 of the Brazilian’s goals are counted as top-level according to The International Federation of Football History & Statistics (IFFHS).
Pele’s once unchallenged status as the game’s GOAT might not remain but the South American remains perhaps the Godfather of the sport. A World Cup winner at 17, he is the only man to have won football’s biggest prize on three occasions. Brazil, perhaps football’s most romanticised nation, owe their standing in large part thanks to Pele.
2. Lionel Messi (838*)
Lionel Messi sits second on this list with 838 goals and counting in his career.
No footballer has ever scored more goals for a single club than Messi did for Barcelona (672), following a record-breaking career in Catalonia. Messi won 10 league titles and four Champions League trophies during his spell with the Spaniards, breaking countless records and enhancing his argument as the finest footballer of all time.
Messi memories 🤩#UCL pic.twitter.com/e7OWoRSLMW
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) November 19, 2023
The most decorated player in the history of professional football, with 44 team trophies, Messi’s record of 91 goals scored during the calendar year of 2012 is one unlikely to be matched. Neither, perhaps, are his eight Ballon d’Or awards.
Iconic Performances: Messi lights up El Clásico with his first ever hat-trick
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (901*)
Cristiano Ronaldo is recognised as the leading scorer in football history after reaching 900 career goals.
The Portugal international holds the record for goals in men’s international football (131) and the UEFA Champions League (140), while he has recorded over a century of goals for each of Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
If your football career started at 18 and you scored 40 goals a season for 20 years, you would retire with 800 goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo has 900 🤯 pic.twitter.com/eAfVUFVDNB
— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) September 6, 2024
Ronaldo became Real Madrid’s record scorer during nine seasons of astonishing goalscoring, as he netted 450 goals in just 434 appearances for Los Blancos. He is the only player in history to have won league titles in England, Spain and Italy and the only man to have won the division’s leading scorer award in each of those competitions.
Next up on the 39-year-old’s list of targets is 1000 goals.
Breaking down Cristiano Ronaldo’s 900 career goals
The top 10 goalscorers in football history
- Cristiano Ronaldo, 900 (2002–present)
- Lionel Messi, 838 (2004–present)
- Pelé, 762 (1957–1977)
- Romário, 755 (1985–2007)
- Ferenc Puskás, 724 (1943–1966)
- Josef Bican, 722 (1931–1955)
- Jimmy Jones, 648 (1947–1964)
- Robert Lewandowski, 635 (2008–present)
- Gerd Müller, 634 (1964–1981)
- Joe Bambrick, 629 (1926–1943)
Read – Ranking Cristiano Ronaldo’s best ever goals
See more – Iconic Performances: Messi’s four-goal demolition of Arsenal
