Top 10 players with most goals in Champions League history
These players made scoring goals on big European nights a habit.
The UEFA Champions League is without doubt the stratosphere of footballing glory and its highest scorers are some of the best players in the world. The annual competition features the best European football clubs containing some of the best players in the sport competing against each other. It has produced moments of euphoria, glory, magic, and agony which make it the great sporting spectacle that it is.
The Champions League is considered the biggest prize in club football. Many clubs and players make it their perennial ambition to get their hands on the illustrious trophy. Among the many who have, a few have had the privilege of winning the trophy and this was through their stellar efforts on the pitch for their respective sides.
Today, we will take a look at the top 10 highest goalscorers in Europe’s premier club football competition.
10. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 48 goals
Zlatan has scored 48 goals in 121 games which he featured in for six of Europe’s most illustrious clubs: FC Barcelona, Paris-Saint Germain, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Ajax and Juventus, proving that despite changing so many teams his goalscoring never dipped.
For all his efforts though, Zlatan has never won a Champions League crown in his career. It could be the only trophy that eluded him in his club career.
9. Kylian Mbappe – 49 goals
Kylian Mbappe has rocked the competition from three different teams, although his stint with Real Madrid is still a fresh one to consider. The former AS Monaco and PSG forward has done wonders in world football. The guy literally stunned Argentina in the 2022 FIFA World Cup final singlehandedly by scoring a hat trick. He has to be special.
To reach 49 UCL goals, the French athlete needed 77 appearances. His very first campaign was with Monaco in the 2016-17 season. Mbappe is still just 25 and has enough time to increase his tally and improve his spot on the list.
8. Thierry Henry – 50 goals
Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry scored 50 goals in 112 games for AS Monaco, the Gunners and FC Barcelona. The legendary Frenchman almost won the title in his days in North London. Losing out in the final against his future employers Barcelona in 2006.
But, Henry more than made up for it as he won the crown with Barcelona in 2008-09 as part of a trio consisting of him, a young Lionel Messi, and Samuel Eto’o. Henry was part of the Blaugrana team that completed an unprecedented sextuple- winning every major trophy in 2009.
7. Thomas Muller – 54 goals
FC Bayern Munich attacker Thomas Muller has scored 54 goals for the Bavarian outfit. It is without a doubt that Muller can stake claim to being one of Bayern’s best-ever players. The German is the club’s most decorated player with 27 trophies.
He has two UEFA Champions League titles to show among them. Both titles came as part of Bayern winning the historic treble and there is simply nothing that Muller hasn’t won in his career with both club and country.
6. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 56 goals
The Dutchman is one of two people on this list who never won a UEFA Champions League title (along with Zlatan). But that didn’t stop him from scoring a bundle of goals for teams such as PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United and Real Madrid.
In 73 games that he played in Europe’s elite football competition for these three teams, Van Nistelrooy scored 56 goals at a rate of 0.77 goals/game.
5. Raul Gonzalez – 71 goals
The Real Madrid youth product remains the highest goalscorer among non-active players. He scored 71 goals in 142 games in the competition, with the majority of them coming for Real Madrid (66). For his efforts, Raul lifted the Champions League title on three occasions, all with Los Blancos.
Raul was also the first footballer to make 100 appearances in the UEFA Champions League.
4. Karim Benzema – 90 goals
Karim Benzema has arguably been the most consistent performer for Real Madrid over the last few years, although now he plays for Saudi side Al Ittihad. He was the Spanish giants’ saving grace on multiple occasions.
Benzema had enjoyed a very fruitful career in the Spanish capital, especially in the Champions League. Scoring 90 goals across spells at Lyon and now Real Madrid. He has won four Champions League trophies, including a hat-trick of titles with Real between 2015 and 2018.
3. Robert Lewandowski – 101 goals
There seems to be no stopping Robert Lewandowski. The prolific Pole has always been a consistent scorer in the competition and now stands in third place with 101 goals.
After coming close on many occasions, Lewandowski’s consistency and patience bore fruit as he finally got his hands on the biggest prize in club football when Bayern won the Champions League and thereby completed the second treble in their history, becoming only the second club after FC Barcelona to do so. Now the Barcelona star will look to score more in upcoming games.
2. Lionel Messi -129 goals
Lionel Messi has to feature in any and every list of elite goalscorers. The legendary Argentine has put goalscoring records to waste in domestic and continental football and continues to be among the goals.
Messi has won four Champions League titles, taking Barcelona’s tally from one trophy to five in just under a decade. In the process, Messi has notched up an incredible 129 goals in 160 games for Barcelona and PSG at a rate of 0.81 goals/game. His tally is the highest by any player for a single club.
Messi is one of only two players (alongside Luiz Adriano) to have scored five goals in a single match in the Champions League. And has scored the joint most number of hat-tricks in the competition (8, tied with Cristiano Ronaldo)
1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 140 goals
When it comes to the UEFA Champions League, no discussion is complete without mentioning Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese had a habit of performing on the big European nights which, in turn, elevated his status to being arguably the best-ever player in the competition’s history. Captain of Portugal is also top scorer of the UEFA Euro Cup.
Ronaldo has accomplished and broken every record imaginable in the Champions League, most goals, most goals in a single season (17), and joint-most number of hat-tricks (8). The first player to score 100 Champions League goals and the first player to score 100 Champions League goals for a single club (105 – Real Madrid). The list is endless and shows the level that the legendary Portuguese forward possesses when it comes to the biggest competition in club football.
** This article was last updated on 27 November 2024.
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