Netherlands Top Scorers of All Time

In this post, we are actually to Netherlands all-time top scorers and we should say that one of Netherlands top scorers in 2021, namely Memphis Depay, is also among them - actually among the first 10 Netherlands top scorers of all time.

Depay actually made a difference in 2021 with the 17 goals he scored for Netherlands national team which is 12 in front of Georginio Wijnaldum who occupies the second place on the list of

Netherlands top scorers in 2021

. And among Netherlands top scorers of all time, he’s actually fourth and since he’s still in the business, he can even improve his position on the list.

A List of Netherlands All-Time Top Scorers

Here is a list of Netherlands top scorers of all time. It’s just like the list of

concerning the number of goals scored by the top scorers on the list: It doesn’t go beyond 50, however, there are more prolific goalscorers on the list than the list of Australia top scorers.

Robin van Persie (50 Goals)

Number one on the list of

Netherlands top scorers of all time

, Robin van Persie is a 38-year-old recently-retired Dutch footballer who managed to score 50 goals in 102 appearances for the Dutch national team - almost one goal in every two appearances. Other than topping the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time, Van Persie has two international and some club records to his name the most prominent of which is the most number of goals scored in the Premier League by a Dutch footballer till this date - 144 in 280 appearances that, as you see, is again around one goal in every two appearances.

From among all the 50 goals Van Persie scored for the Dutch national team 15 (30%) were scored in international friendlies, 13 (26%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 13 in Euro qualification rounds, 6 (12%) in World Cup finals, and 3 (6%) in Euro finals. Van Persie also provided 20 assists and received 14 yellow cards during his career. And he also served Netherlands U17, U19, and U21 teams between 2000 and 2005 scoring 12 goals in 31 appearances for them in the process.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar (42 Goals)

His difference is not much from the first position on the list, but his goal-to-appearance ratio is higher or better said the highest among the first 7 positions on the list: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. He scored 42 goals in 76 appearances for the Dutch national team which gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.55 meaning that the 38-year-old recently-retired Dutch forward scored a little bit more than one goal (exactly 1.1) in every 2 appearances for his country’s national team.

Huntelaar also served Netherlands U17, U18, U19, U20, and U21 teams from 2002 to 2006 scoring 31 goals in 60 appearances for them in the process. He actually scored 18 goals alone for

in 24 appearances - 1.5 goals in every appearance - becoming the team’s top scorer of all time and keeping his record till this date (November 2021). And what about Huntelaar’s stats with Netherlands senior national team? Well, the retired Dutch forward scored 16 goals in international friendlies, 18 in Euro qualifying rounds, 1 in Euro finals, 5 in World Cup qualification rounds and 2 in World Cup finals. He also provided 12 assists and received 7 yellow cards during his international career.

Patrick Kluivert (40 Goals)

One of the top former Dutch footballers belonging to 1990s generation of football,

is a 45-year-old retired footballer who served the Dutch national team between 1994 and 2004 making 79 appearances and scoring 40 goals for them in the process. That actually gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.51 meaning that he scored a little bit more than one goal (exactly 1.02) in every two appearances that he made for his country’s national team.

It might be interesting for you to know that with that number of goals (40), Kluivert was actually Netherlands all-time top scorer between 2003 and 2013 before his record was broken by Robin van Persie in October 2013 in a match between Netherlands and

that ended in the former’s 8-1 win with Van Persie scoring a hat trick and putting himself above Kluivert on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time with a total of 41 international goals.

Back to Kluivert, we should say that the 45-year-old retired Dutch footballer scored 18 (45%) of his international goals in international friendlies, 7 (17.5%) of them in Euro qualifying rounds, 7 in World Cup qualifying rounds, 6 (15%) in Euro finals, and 2 (5%) in World Cup finals. He also provided 7 assists, and received 7 yellow cards and one red card during his international career. Kluivert also served Netherlands U16, U17, U18, U19, and U21 teams some time between 1990 and 1994 making 38 appearances and scoring 10 goals for them in the process. It should also be mentioned here that Kluivert is one of the three footballers among the first 10 Netherlands top scorers of all time who has served the Dutch national team as a manager - actually as an assistant manager.

Memphis Depay (38 Goals)

He’s actually the only footballer on the list who is among Netherlands top scorers in 2021 and concerning the fact that he’s only 27 years old and still in the business and also that he’s not behind the positions above him by far, there’s a high probability that he improves his position on the list of Netherlands all-time top scorers with the goals he scores for the Dutch national team in the coming years. And who knows? He might even make it to the top of the list, if he just manages to score 12 more international goals.

He’s actually the only footballer on the list who is among Netherlands top scorers in 2021 and concerning the fact that he’s only 27 years old and still in the business and also that he’s not behind the positions above him by far, there’s a high probability that he improves his position on the list of Netherlands all-time top scorers with the goals he scores for the Dutch national team in the coming years. And who knows? He might even make it to the top of the list, if he just manages to score 12 more international goals.

From among all the 38 goals

has scored for the Dutch national team to this date, 9 (23%) have been scored in international friendlies, 15 (39%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 6 (15%) in Euro qualifying rounds, 4 (10%) in UEFA Nations League, 2 (5%) in World Cup finals, and 2 in Euro finals. The 27-year-old Dutch-Ghanaian forward has also provided 28 assists - the second highest among the first 10 footballers on the list, and has received 5 yellow cards in international arenas up to this date. He has also served Netherlands U15, U16, U17, U19, and U21 teams some time between 2008 and 2013 scoring 18 goals in 41 appearances for them.

Dennis Bergkamp (37 Goals)

Many believe that Dennis Bergkamp is one of the legendary Dutch footballers; either true or not, he actually occupies the 5th position on the list of

Netherlands top scorers of all time

with a total of 37 international goals which he scored in 79 appearances getting an international goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.47 which is very near to those of players already mentioned in this post and means that he scored almost one goal (exactly 0.94) in every two appearances for his country’s national team.

From among all the 37 international goals

scored, 10 (27%) were scored in international friendlies, 12 (32%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 5 (13%) in Euro qualifying rounds, 4 (10%) in Euro finals, and 6 (16%) in World Cup finals. Bergkamp also provided 19 assists and received 3 yellow cards during his international career, and for Netherlands under-aged teams? Well, he only made two appearances for Netherlands U21 team but scored no goals for them.

Arjen Robben (37 Goals)

Sharing the fifth position on the list of

Netherlands top scorers of all time

with Dennis Bergkamp, Arjen Robben is a 37-year-old recently-retired Dutch footballer who managed to score 37 goals in 96 appearances for his country’s national team. That actually gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.39 meaning that he scored almost 2 goals (exactly 1.95) in every 5 appearances that he made for his country’s national team.

Having served the top European clubs, Chelsea, Real Madrid, and

, during his career, Robben has almost the same club goal-to-appearance ratio as his international’s (0.34) which means he was not a prolific goalscorer during his career, however, he’s one of the highly-decorated footballers on the list with only 30 club trophies to his name let alone the individual honors he’s got. Robben was also part of the Dutch national team who finished  as runners-up in 2010 and on the third place in 2014 FIFA World Cup.

From among all the 37 goals

scored for the Dutch national team 15 (40%) were scored in international friendlies, 12 (32%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 3 (8%) in Euro qualification rounds, 6 (16%) in World Cup finals, and 1 (2%) in Euro finals. He also provided 34 assists - the highest on the list - and received 8 yellow cards during his international career. And he also made 16 appearances and scored 3 goals for Netherlands under-aged teams (U15, U17, U19, U20, and U21) some time from 1999 to 2003.

Ruud van Nistelrooy (35 Goals)

A former player of Real Madrid and

, Ruud van Nistelrooy is a 45-year-old retired Dutch footballer who served his country’s national team from 1998 to 2011 making 70 appearances and scoring 35 goals for them in the process - exactly one goal in every two appearances, and just like Patrick Kluivert, he also served the Dutch national team as an assistant manager after his retirement as a player; actually in two time periods: Once from 2014 to 2016 and another time in 2019.

From among all the 35 goals Van Nistelrooy scored for Netherlands national team, 6 (17%) were scored in international friendlies, 9 (25%) in Euro qualifying rounds, 13 (37%) in World Cup qualifying rounds, 6 in Euro finals, and 1 (2%) in World Cup finals. He also provided 1 assist and received 10 yellow cards during his international career, and served only Netherlands U21 team among all the country’s under-aged teams making 4 appearances for them with no goals.

Faas Wilkes (34 Goals)

Only one goal behind Van Nistelrooy on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time, Faas Wilkes is a passed Dutch footballer - he died in 2006 at the age of 82 - who has one of the highest international goal-to-appearance ratios on the list: 0.92 which comes from the 34 goals he scored in the 37 appearances that he made for the Dutch national team between 1946 and 1961. If he scored only 3 more goals, then he could register a goal-to-appearance of 1, however, that 0.92 ratio does not fall far behind 1, as you see.

One interesting fact about Wilkes is that he remained Netherlands top scorer of all time for almost 40 years between 1959 and 1998 with the 34 goals he had scored for the Dutch national team, and another interesting fact about him is that 33 of these 34 goals he scored in international friendlies and the remaining one in 1958 World Cup qualification round in a match against

which ended in Netherlands 5-2 victory.

Abe Lenstra (33 Goals)

Another passed footballer on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time sharing the 8th position on the list with the Dutch legend, Johan Cruyff, Abe Lenstra served the Dutch national team between 1940 and 1959 scoring 33 goals in 47 appearances that he made for them during this time. That actually gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.72 which although is not as high as that of Wilkes, it means that Lenstra was also a prolific goalscorer at least at international level scoring a little bit more than 2 goals (exactly 2.16) in every three appearances for his country’s national team. And just like Wilkes, Lenstra also scored most of his international goals in international friendlies; actually 30 out of all his 33 international goals with the rest 3 being scored in 1958 World Cup qualification round against Austria and Luxembourg.

Johan Cruyff (33 Goals)

Although almost at the bottom of the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time, Johan Cruyff is believed by many to be the best Dutch player or even the best player in the history of football above legends like Pele and Maradona. Whatever the truth, there is no doubt that Johan Cruyff is a football legend as big as the names just mentioned. Although he didn’t score enough to top the list of

Netherlands all-time top scorers

, his tactics was always superior.

Well, let’s see what are Johan Cruyff’s stats with the Dutch national team. Cruyff actually served the Dutch national team for 11 years between 1966 and 1977 scoring 33 goals in 48 appearances for them which gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.69 meaning that the passed Dutch footballer scored a little bit more than 2 goals (exactly 2.07) in every three appearances for his country’s national team. That is one of the high ratios compared to other ratios on the list.

From among all the 33 goals

scored for the Dutch national team, 8 (24%) were scored in international friendlies, 10 (30%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 12 (36%) in Euro qualifying rounds, and 3 (9%) in World Cup finals, and although he made one appearance in Euro 1976, he didn’t score a goal in that competition. Cruyff also made 27 assists, and received 6 yellow cards and one red card during his international career. Just like Arjen Robben, Johan Cruyff is also one of the highly-decorated footballers on the list if not actually the highest-decorated one with 22 and 14 club trophies to his name as a player and manager, respectively. He’s the only Ballon d’Or winner on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time with three Ballon d’Or trophies to his name.

Wesley Sneijder (31 Goals)

The recently-retired attacking midfielder, Wesley Sneijder, has actually the lowest international goal-to-appearance ratio on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time: 0.23 which comes from the 31 goals he scored in his 134 international appearances and means that he scored almost one goal (exactly 0.92) in every four appearances that he made for the Dutch national team.

From among all the 31 goals Sneijder scored for the

10 (32%) were scored in international friendlies, 8 (25%) in Euro qualification rounds, 5 (16%) in World Cup qualification rounds, 6 (19%) in World Cup finals, and 2 (6%) in Euro finals. He also provided 32 assists - the second highest on the list - and received 12 yellow cards during his international career. Just like Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder was also part of the Dutch national team who finished  as runners-up in 2010 and on the third place in 2014 FIFA World Cup. He also served Netherlands U17, U19, and U21 teams some time between 2000 and 2003 making 15 appearances and scoring 5 goals for them in the process.

Beb Bakhuys (28 Goals)

Occupying the 10th position on the list of Netherlands top scorers of all time, Beb Bakhuys is a passed Dutch footballer - he died in 1982 at the age of 73 - who has the highest international goal-to-appearance ratio at least among the first twenty footballers on the list: 1.21 which comes from the 28 goals he scored in his 23 international appearances and is quite clear what it means: 1.2 goals in every international appearance. And just like Faas Wilkes and Abe Lenstra who scored most of their international goals in international friendlies, Beb Bakhuys also scored 24 of his 28 goals in international friendlies and only 4 of them in 1958 World Cup qualification round against Belgium and Ireland.

The Rest of the List of Netherlands Top Scorers of All Time

Here comes a few more other Netherlands top scorers on the list - actually after the 10th position. Please note that by ratio below we mean international goal-to-appearance ratio.

• Kick Smit, Goals: 26, Apps: 29, Ratio: 0.9, Pos: winger, Status: passed away

• Georginio Wijnaldum, Goals: 26, Apps: 85, Ratio: 0.31, Pos: midfielder, Status: playing

• Rafael van der Vaart, Goals: 25, Apps: 109, Ratio: 0.23, Pos: midfielder, Status: retired

• Marco van Basten, Goals: 24, Apps: 58, Ratio: 0.41, Pos: forward, Status: retired

• Dirk Kuyt, Goals: 23, Apps: 104, Ratio: 0.22, Pos: winger, Status: retired

• Leen Vente, Goals: 19, Apps: 21, Ratio: 0.9, Pos: forward, Status: passed away

• Mannes Francken, Goals: 17, Apps: 22, Ratio: 0.77, Pos: forward, Status: passed away

• Tonny van der Linden, Goals: 17, Apps: 24, Ratio: 0.71, Pos: forward, Stauts: passed away

• John Bosman, Goals: 17, Apps: 30, Ratio: 0.57, Pos: forward, Status: retired

• Wim Tap, Goals: 17, Apps: 33, Ratio: 0.52, Pos: forward, Status: passed away

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