Copa del Rey Top Scorers of All Time

You may ask among

Copa del Rey winners

, which is the most successful one? And, you should probably guess the answer is either Barcelona or Real Madrid. The former is the right answer. Barcelona top the list of Copa del Rey winners with 31 Copa del Rey trophies won to this date, and to your surprise, the second position on the list is not occupied by Real Madrid but by Athletic Bilbao with 23 Copa del Rey trophies.

The Copa del Rey winner in 2021 was Barcelona who defeated their old opponent, Athletic Bilbao, 4-0 and earned their 31st Copa del Rey trophy, but the

highest goal scorer in Copa del Rey 2021

was not from Barcelona. He was the 32-year-old Spanish forward, Sergio Leon, from Levante who managed to become the highest goal scorer in Copa del Rey 2021 with 5 goals.

A List of Copa del Rey Top Scorers of All Time

Before anything else, we should say that neither the highest goal scorer in Copa del Rey 2021, being Sergio Leon, nor other top scorers in the same competition are among Copa del Rey top scorers of all time, but let’s see who we have on the list.

Telmo Zarra (81 Goals)

The footballer who tops the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time is not from the

Copa del Rey winner in 2021

, Barcelona, but from their rival,

. He scored a record 81 goals in Copa del Rey competitions and all for the same club, Athletic Bilbao, though he served other Spanish clubs in other tiers during his career, too. Ja, that is Telmo Zarra, Athletic Bilbao’s prolific goalscorer who not only tops the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time but also is Athletic Bilbao’s all-time top scorer with the 332 goals he scored for them during his career.

Zarra also holds the record for the most number of goals scored in a Copa del Rey final: 4 goals in the final of 1950 Copa del Rey against

where Zarra’s side, Athletic Bilbao, beat their opponent 4-1 with Zarra scoring all the goals for them. Zarra actually took part in 19 Copa del Rey competitions from 1939 to 1957 and managed to win 5 Copa del Rey trophies with Athletic Bilbao in 1943, 1944, 1944-45 and 1949-50 seasons, and 1955.  If we take the number of goals Zarra scored in Copa del Rey competitions (81) and the number of Copa del Rey competitions he took part in (19) into consideration, then we can say he averagely scored 4.2 goals in every Copa del Rey competition he took part in which is not bad though there are better averages on the list, too.

And finally we should say that Zarra was La Liga’s top scorer of all time with 251 goals for 57 years from 1957 to November 2014 before his record was broken by the top Argentinian forward, Lionel Messi, in a match against Sevilla that ended in Barca’s 5-1 victory where Messi managed to score his 252nd goal breaking the record of the long-passed-away Spanish footballer.

Josep Samitier (70 Goals)

The only midfielder on the list of

Copa del Rey top scorers of all time

, Josep Samitier is a passed Spanish footballer who died in 1972 at the age of 70; he’s also the farthest on the list concerning his footballing time - his career lasted from 1919 to 1939. Samitier played majorly for Barcelona during his career, however, in the 5 years to the end of his career, he also served Real Madrid and the French club, Nice. He took part in 16 editions of Copa del Rey from 1919 to 1934 with Barcelona and Real Madrid scoring 65 and 5 goals for them in the competition respectively and won the 1920, 1922, 1925, 1926, and 1925 editions of Copa del Rey with the former and the 1934 edition with the latter.

Despite being a midfielder, Samitier was a prolific goalscorer and managed to score a goal in every two appearances throughout his career. He was Barcelona’s all-time top scorer at the time of his retirement in 1939 with the 184 goals he had scored for the club and only fell by four positions to 5th on the list of Barcelona top scorers of all time as of 2020.

Guillermo Gorostiza (64 Goals)

Another passed footballer on the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time, Guillermo Gorostiza played majorly for Athletic Bilbao and Valencia during his career scoring 290 goals in 402 appearances for them in the process which translates to almost 1.5 goals in every two appearances. In Copa del Rey, however, he scored 64 goals and for three clubs, namely Athletic Bilbao (37), Valencia (24), and Racing Ferrol (3).

As you see, he again scored most of his

goals for the two clubs mentioned above. Gorostiza took part in 17 editions of Copa del Rey from 1928 to 1946 and by the number of goals he scored in them (64), we can say he scored averagely 3.76 goals in every edition of the major Spanish cup - still behind Telmo Zarra and Josep Samitier concerning his average Copa del Rey goals. And we should finally say that Gorostiza won four consecutive Copa del Rey trophies with Athletic Bilbao from 1930 to 1933.

Lionel Messi (56 Goals)

La Liga all-time top scorer, Lionel Messi, has also scored enough goals to make his way to the list of

Copa del Rey top scorers of all time

and even rise to the 4th position, however, although he’s still in the business, he’s not going to promote his position on the list of Copa del Rey top scorers since, as you might know, he’s no more in Spanish football and almost at the end of his career. Again as you might have guessed, Messi has scored all his 56 Copa del Rey goals for only one club, namely Barcelona, since he only served this club within the sphere of Spanish football.

Messi actually took part in 17 editions of Copa del Rey from 2004 to 2021 with Barcelona scoring 56 goals for the top Spanish club, so, on average, we can say Messi has scored 3.29 goals in every edition of Copa del Rey. He also won seven editions of Copa del Rey from 2008 to 2021 with the latest edition being the 2020-21 one. Maybe Messi’s most memorable moments in Copa del Rey competitions are his scoring a hat trick in eight minutes against Sevilla actually in 2003-04 Copa del Rey where he still played for Barcelona C and his scoring a remarkable goal in 2006-07 Copa del Rey semi-finals against Getafe which resembled Maradona’s Goal of the Century in 1986 FIFA World Cup.

Edmundo Suarez (55 Goals)

Only one goal behind Lionel Messi on the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time, Edmundo Suarez is a passed Spanish forward who played almost all his career for Valencia. In fact, if he had not served Athletic Bilbao and the lower-tier club,

, each for a season, we could have said he had actually played all his career for Valencia. Anyway, he scored all his La Liga and Copa del Rey goals for Valencia and also managed to win three La Liga titles in 1941-42, 1943-44, and 1946-47 seasons and two Copa del Rey trophies in 1941 and 1949 with the top Spanish club. Later in 1967 when he was Valencia’s manager, he also won another Copa del Rey trophy with the club.

As a player, Suarez took part in 12 editions of Copa del Rey from 1939 to 1950 and, as you already know, scored 55 goals in them which means he averagely scored 4.58 goals in every edition of the major Spanish competition. That is actually the second highest average on the list after the average of Ferenc Puskas.

Quini (50 Goals)

His real name is Enrique Castro Gonzalez and he’s a passed Spanish forward who served the Spanish club,

, for a major part of his career; actually for 15 years and in two time periods; once from 1968 to 1980 and another time from 1984 to 1987. And in between, we mean from 1980 to 1984, he served Barcelona. Quini scored all of his 50 Copa del Rey goals for the two above-mentioned clubs with Sporting Gijon getting a share of 36 and Barcelona a share of 14 from these goals. He took part in 20 editions of Copa del Rey and, as you know, scored 50 goals in them which translates to 2.5 goals in every edition on average. Although Quini served Sporting Gijon far longer than Barcelona (15 years vs 4), he won both his Copa del Rey trophies with the latter; actually in 1980-81 and 1982-83 seasons.

Ferenc Puskas (49 Goals)

One of the two Hungarian-Spanish footballers on the list of

Copa del Rey top scorers of all time

, Ferenc Puskas is a passed forward and attacking midfielder who served only two clubs during his career: Budapest Honved and Real Madrid. And as you might have guessed, he scored all his 49 Copa del Rey goals for the latter winning only one Copa del Rey trophy, actually the 1961-62 edition, with the Spanish team. Puskas actually took part in 8 editions of Copa del Rey from 1958 to 1966 and considering the number of goals he scored in them (49), we can say that he scored 6.1 goals in each edition averagely which is the highest average on the list. To tell you the truth, Puskas was actually a prolific goalscorer during his career: He scored 625 goals in his 629 club appearances and 84 goals in 85 appearances for the Hungarian national team - almost one goal in every appearance in both cases.

Laszlo Kubala (49 Goals)

The second Hungarian-Spanish footballer on the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time, Laszlo Kubala is a passed forward who played for several clubs during his career with two of them being Spanish: Barcelona and

. And he scored all his 49 Copa del Rey goals for the former and in 14 editions of the Spanish major competition from 1951 to 1965. That actually means he averagely scored 3.5 goals in every edition of Copa del Rey he took part in. Kubala was not as prolific a goalscorer as Puskas, but he managed to score a little bit more than one goal (exactly 1.1) in every of his two club appearances. He also won five Copa del Rey trophies with Barcelona from 1951 to 1959.

Santillana (48 Goals)

Carlos Alonso Gonzalez, known better as Santillana in the world of football, is a 69-year-old retired footballer who served only two clubs during his career: Racing Santander and Real Madrid. In fact, he served the former for only one season and the latter for the rest of his career, so we can call his almost a one-club man. Santillana took part in 18 editions of Copa del Rey, namely from 1970 to 1988, where he managed to score 48 goals for his side, Real Madrid. That means he scored an average of 2.66 goals in every edition of Copa del Rey he took part in. He also won four Copa del Rey trophies actually in 1973-74, 1974-75, 1979-80, and 1981-82 seasons with the Whites.

Cesar Rodriguez (47 Goals)

Among the passed footballers on the list of Copa del Rey top scorers of all time, Cesar Rodriguez served Barcelona more than any other club during his career; actually for 16 years between 1939 and 1955; this is as he played for the other clubs he served during his career only for a year or two. You might think that he scored all his Copa del Rey goals for Barcelona, but that’s not true. Despite the fact that he served Barcelona more than any other club during his career, he scored 3 of his 47 Copa del Rey goals for Granada and 8 of them for

and, of course, 36 of them for Barcelona.

Rodriguez took part in 22 editions of Copa del Rey from 1939 to 1960 and concerning the number of goals he scored in them (47), we can say that he scored an average of 2.13 goals in each edition of the major Spanish competition he took part in. He also won three consecutive Copa del Rey trophies with Barcelona from 1951 to 1953.

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