The most goals in football history: Who holds the record for the most goals scored on the field?
Football is one of the most popular and watched games in the world for many reasons. Besides being accessible to anyone with a ball and space to play, it socializes, teaches values, evokes strong emotions, and last but not least, creates some of the best athletes.
Every fan has their favorite, but the truth is that the most admired players are those who score the most goals. Whether it's the World Cup, the Champions League, the Premier League, or any other major tournament, glory is primarily earned by those who get the ball over the goal line.
Football history includes several significant personalities. Let's take a look at who has scored the most goals in football history and remember some significant moments.
Players who have scored the most goals in football
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the exceptional forwards whose shooting mentality has made him a master scorer in football history. This Portuguese forward playing for the Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr FC has dominated the scoring charts for most of the 21st century, breaking one record after another.
His position as the most prolific scorer is highlighted by the fact that he has scored 877 goals in his career.
In the calendar year 2023, he scored more goals than anyone else, finding the net 52 times for Portugal and Al-Nassr.
Throughout his playing career, he has received several awards. He has been named FIFA's best player three times, won the Ballon d'Or five times, been declared the best player in Europe four times, named Player of the Year fourteen times, and has been recognized as the top scorer in various competitions multiple times.
However, these are just some of the accolades of Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best forwards on the planet.
Lionel Messi
The Argentine national footballer Lionel Messi, known as El Pulga (The Flea), playing for the American club Inter Miami CF, stands closely behind Ronaldo in terms of achievements. He is just as exceptional at converting chances as he is at creating them. In his career, he has scored 824 goals, won a World Cup title, received the Ballon d'Or eight times, and the Golden Boot six times. He has won the Trofeo Pichichi award for the top scorer in the Spanish league a record seven times. While playing for Barcelona, he won the Spanish league title ten times and celebrated four triumphs in the UEFA Champions League, among other achievements.
In 2022, Messi achieved the long-awaited accolade by winning the World Cup for the first time, which was held in Argentina.
Additionally, on May 8, 2023, he became the first person in history to win two Laureus awards in the same year – both an individual and a team award.
Josef Bican
Josef Bican, also known as Pepi, was a Czech-Austrian footballer and coach regarded as the best player of the 20th century. He was part of the team that reached the semifinals of the 1934 World Cup. The striker, gifted with sprinting speed, scored 821 goals in his career, surpassing even the legendary Pelé.
He started in Vienna clubs but spent most of his career at Slavia Prague. Although he was born in Austria, he obtained Czech citizenship after the 1938 World Cup.
He received several awards and on September 25, 2013, he was inducted into the Czech Football Hall of Fame on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of his birth.
Pelé
The Brazilian footballer Pelé is still considered by some to be the greatest player of all time. And it's no wonder; throughout his career, he set several unbeatable records. For instance, he made his World Cup debut at the age of seventeen and immediately became one of the stars of the Brazilian team. Four years later, Brazil won the world title again, and in 1970, Pelé became a world champion for the third time. Among other contributions, he scored the leading goal in the final and was named the best player of the tournament.
During his stellar career on the field, Pelé scored 778 goals. Aside from a brief stint with New York Cosmos, Pelé spent his entire career in his homeland, where he won six Brazilian Serie A titles and two Copa Libertadores titles.
Romário
Former Brazilian footballer Romário is one of the legends of professional football. The former Barcelona coach Johann Cruyff described him as a genius in the penalty area. He played for ten clubs, including PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Valencia, and CR Vasco da Gama, and scored 755 goals during his career.
While at Dutch club PSV, he helped the team win three league titles and KNVB Cups. Then, he won La Liga with Barcelona in 1994. He later continued his fearless goal-scoring both at home and around the world. Only Neymar, Pelé, and Ronaldo have scored more goals for Brazil than Romário.
Who scored the most goals in the World Cup?
The World Cup has been around for almost a century, so it's no surprise that the list of records and interesting facts fills the history books. The best footballers in the world have been competing in these watched tournaments since 1930. Let's take a look at who scored the most goals in the football championship.
Over the years, a total of 2,720 goals have been scored in the 22 editions of the tournament across 964 matches.
The record for the highest number of goals scored in the World Cup belongs to German Miroslav Klose. Between 2002 and 2014, he scored a total of sixteen goals in 24 matches.
Active players who hold the record for the most goals scored
- Lionel Messi (Argentina) thirteen goals,
- Kylian Mbappé (France) twelve goals,
- Thomas Müller (Germany) ten goals,
- Harry Kane (England) eight goals,
- Neymar (Brazil) eight goals,
- Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) eight goals,
- Luis Suárez (Uruguay) seven goals,
- Ivan Perišić (Croatia) six goals,
- James Rodríguez (Colombia) six goals,
- Enner Valencia (Ecuador) six goals,
- Edinson Cavani (Uruguay) five goals,
- Olivier Giroud (France) five goals,
- Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) five goals,
- Xherdan Shaqiri (Switzerland) five goals.
Other records in the number of goals scored in the World Cup
- The record for the most goals scored in a single World Cup tournament belongs to Frenchman Just Fontaine, who managed to score a total of thirteen times in 1958. He played a total of six matches in the tournament and did not participate in any others.
- Russian Oleg Salenko had a stunning performance when he scored a total of five goals in one match. This happened at the World Cup in the USA in 1994, where his efforts led to a 6-1 victory over the Cameroonian team.
- In 2002, Turkish player Hakan Şükür scored a goal just eleven seconds into the match for third place against South Korea. He thus set the record for the fastest goal and helped his team win 3-2.
- The record for the most World Cup titles has been held for many years by Brazilian Pelé, with his three successes in 1958, 1962, and 1970.
- The title of World Champion has most often been won by the Brazilians, who have finished in first place a total of five times in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994, and 2002.
- The record for the most medals won at World Championships is held by Germany, whose national team has won a total of twelve medals from 1930 to 2018.
