Champions League Top Scorers of All Time
A number of footballers, from old to new, populate the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, but did you know that from among UCL all-time top scorers only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more than 100 goals in the Champions League?
The nearest to this duo (Ronaldo and Messi) is Raul from Spain with 71 goals scored in UCL, and just from 7th position occupied by Thierry Henry of Arsenal down the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time nobody has scored more than 50 goals in the major European competition.
That means Ronaldo and Messi have scored more than twice as much as the goals other footballers on the list of Champions League All-time Top Scorers have scored, except for positions 3 to 7. And the rest of the list? Let’s see it together.
The List of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time (from 1955 to 2020)
Here comes the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time with Ronaldo topping the list and Messi just trailing behind him with 14 goals less.
These two, as already mentioned, are the only ones to on the list of
Champions League Highest Goal Scorers of All Time
to have scored more than 100 goals in the major European competition - in fact as of now!
Cristiano Ronaldo (128 Goals)
Number one on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, Ronaldo has scored 128 goals in Champions League so far. He’s played in the competition since 2003 and from all the goals he has scored in it, 15 have been for
Manchester United, 105 for Real Madrid, and 8 for Juventus.
Ronaldo has made 169 appearances in the UEFA Champions League, and if you just divide the number of goals he has scored (128) by the number of his appearances in the competition (169), you’ll get a ratio of 0.76.
That means he has scored 3 goals in every 4 appearances he has made in the major European competition. And he’s got this ratio in 17 years - from 2003 to 2020.
Although Ronaldo is the highest scorer on the list of
Champions League Top Scorers Ever
, there are still other players with higher ratios on the list which means they have had less appearances in the Champions League but have scored more goals comparatively.
In other words, if they made as many appearances as Ronaldo has made in UCL and they kept their ratio, they would score more goals than the Portuguese star.
Lionel Messi (114 Goals)
With only 14 goals behind Ronaldo,
Messioccupies the second position on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time. He has scored 114 goals in the major European competition so far and all these goals have been scored for only one club: Barcelona.
Messi has played in the UEFA Champions League since 2005 - two years after Ronaldo, but his goalscoring ratio is better than Ronaldo. He’s got a ratio of 0.81 from 114 goals he has scored in his 141 appearances in UCL.
The 33-year-old Argentinian has also won 4 UEFA Champions League titles with Barcelona - one less than the 5 UCL titles Ronaldo has won so far.
Raul (71 Goals)
Retired Spanish striker, Raul Gonzalez Blanco, simply known as Raul, is actually the highest scorer on the list of UEFA Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, in fact, among the players on the list who have scored less than 100 goals in the major European competition.
Raul has got a ratio of 0.5 in the UCL which means he has scored exactly on goal in every two appearances he has made in the major European competition.
He has actually scored 71 goals in his 142 UCL appearances from 1995 to 2011 and from among these goals 66 have been for Real Madrid and 4 for Schalke 04 of Germany. Raul has also won 3 UCL titles with Real Madrid in 1997-98, 1999-2000, and 2001-02 seasons.
Robert Lewandowski (64 Goals)
Just some time before August 2020, Robert Lewandowski topped the list of 2019–20 Golden Shoe Rankings - for more information refer to our post:
A History of European Golden Shoe Award + Winners List.
He also occupies the fourth position on the list of UEFA Champions League Top Scorers of All Time jointly with Karim Benzema of Real Madrid with 64 goals scored in the major European league so far.
All this indicates that Lewandowski is indeed a prolific goalscorer as is the case with him really. The 31-year-old Polish striker has scored 162 league goals in his 190 appearances for Bayern Munich.
If he had just scored 28 goals more, he would have scored exactly one goal in every appearance for the Bundesliga club; a result that almost no forward has ever achieved.
And from among all the goals Lewandowski has scored in the UCL 47 have been scored for Bayern Munich and 17 for Borussia Dortmund. The Polish striker has also got a close goalscoring-to-UCL-appearance ratio to Ronaldo. He has actually got a 0.74 ratio from 64 goals he has scored in his 86 appearances in the Champions League.
Karim Benzema (64 Goals)
Sharing his position with Robert Lewandowski, Karim Benzema also occupies the fourth place on the list of Champions League Highest Goals Scorers of All Time with 64 goals. Benzema has actually played in the UEFA Champions League since 2006 and has scored 64 goals in his 119 appearances in the major European competition.
That - 64 goals divided by 119 appearances - gets
Benzemaa ratio of 0.54 which means he has scored a little bit more than one goal in every two appearances he has made in the UEFA Champions League.
From among the goals Benzema has scored in Champions League, 52 have been for Real Madrid and 12 for the Ligue 1 club, Lyon. With Real Madrid, Benzema has won 4 Champions League titles 3 of which have been consecutive.
Ruud van Nistelrooy (56 Goals)
The first footballer after Cristiano Ronaldo on the list of
UCL All-Time Top Scorers
who has scored his UCL goals for three clubs: PSV Eindhoven, Manchester United, and Real Madrid. And the number of goals he has scored for these clubs are 8, 35, and 13, respectively that add up to 56 goals in total.
Van Nistelrooy has scored this number of goals (56) in his 73 UCL appearances. So he gets a ratio of 0.77, and that means he has scored 3 goals in every 4 appearances he has had in the UEFA Champions League.
The 44-year-old retired Dutch striker has won no Champions League titles but became Champions League top scorer in three seasons, namely 2001-02, 2002-03, and 2004-05 seasons.
Thierry Henry (50 Goals)
Having played in the UEFA Champions League from 1997 to 2012, Thierry Henry is the second player on the list of Footballers with Most Goals in the Champions League who has scored his UCL goals for three clubs. These clubs are Monaco, Arsenal, and Barcelona for whom Henry has scored 7, 35, and 8 UCL goals, respectively.
And Henry has scored all his UCL goals (50) in 112 appearances he has had in the major European competition. That means he gets a rating of 0.45 which translates to a little bit less than one goal in every two appearances he has had in the Champions League.
Henry has won only one UCL title with Barcelona in 2008-09 season; he has also finished runner-up once in 2005-06 season of UEFA Champions League with Arsenal.
Alfredo Di Stefano (49 Goals)
Like his Argentinian counterpart, Lionel Messi, Alfredo Di Stefano has only played for one club in UCL competitions, but unlike Messi, that club is not Barcelona; It’s Real Madrid. He has scored 49 goals in his 58 UCL appearances for the
LaLigaclub which gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.84 - even higher than Messi.
That means Di Stefano has scored 4 goals in his every 5 UCL appearances. If he just scored 9 more goals, he would get a 1.0 ratio (one goal per match). However, despite his high goalscoring record in the Champions League, Stefano has never won a UCL title with Real Madrid.
But again, he is among the few footballers on the list of UCL all-time top scorers who has played in the first editions of the Champions League starting from 1955.
Andriy Shevchenko (48 Goals)
The only Ukrainian footballer on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, Andriy Shevchenko has exactly made 100 UCL appearances between 1994 and 2012 scoring 48 goals in the process for three clubs: Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, and Chelsea.
The share of each of above-mentioned clubs from Shevchenko’s UCL goals are 15 (Dynamo Kyiv), 24 (AC Milan), and 9 (Chelsea). With the 48 goals the 43-year-old retired Ukrainian forward has scored in his 100 UCL appearances, he simply gets a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.48 which means he has scored almost one goal in every two UCL appearances he has made.
Shevchenko has also won one UCL title with
AC Milanin 2002-03 season, and has finished runner-up two times in the major European competition: once with AC Milan in 2004-05 season and once with Chelsea in 2007-08 season.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (48 Goals)
The only footballer on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time who has scored his UCL goals for six clubs: Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, and PSG; and like Shevchenko, Ibrahimovic has also scored 48 UCL goals but in 120 appearances which means he gets a lower goal-to-appearance ratio than Shevchenko - actually a ratio of 0.4.
With a ratio of 0.4 Ibrahimovic has actually scored 2 goals in every 5 appearances he has had in the Champions League. And the interesting thing about Ibrahimovic is that he has never won a Champions League title with the teams mentioned above, however, he was once named UEFA Champions League top assist provider in 2012-13 season and also in the UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season just one season later in 2013-14 season.
Eusebio (46 Goals)
Another footballer on the list of Footballers with
Most Goals in the Champions League
History, Eusebio is actually the second Portuguese footballer after Cristiano Ronaldo on the list.
He is also one of the footballers to appear in the first editions of the major European competition - he actually played in the Champions League from 1961 to 1974.
And like Lionel Messi and Alfredo Di Stefano, Eusebio has also scored all of his UCL goals only for one club:
Benfica. He has actually scored 46 goals in his 63 appearances in the Champions League which gets a ratio of 0.73 for him. That means he has scored 3 goals in every 4 appearances he has had in the Champions League.
Filippo Inzaghi (46 Goals)
Inzaghi shares his position with Eusebio with 46 goals on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time. He has scored 46 goals in the 81 UCL appearances he has had for two Serie A clubs: Juventus and AC Milan.
That actually gets him a ratio of 0.57 and means that he has scored a little bit more than one goal in every two appearances he has had in the Champions League.
The 43-year-old retired Italian forward has also won two Champions League titles with AC Milan in 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons; an achievement he never earned with Juventus. Inzaghi was also named Man of the Match in 2007 UEFA Champions League Final.
Didier Drogba (44 Goals)
The only Irish footballer on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, Didier Drogba has scored 44 goals in his 92 appearances in the Champions League for three clubs:
Marseille, Chelsea and Galatasaray. And the share of each of these clubs from Drogba’s UCL goals is 5, 36, and 3, respectively.
Drogba played in the Champions League from 2003 to 2015 and as already mentioned scored 44 goals in his 92 appearances in the major European competition which gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.48.
That means Drogba has scored almost one goal in every two appearances he has had in the Champions League. The 42-year-old retired Ivorian forward has won only one Champions League with Chelsea in 2011-12 season.
Thomas Muller (44 Goals)
The only German footballer on the list of
Champions League Top Scorers of All Time
with more than 40 UCL goals, Thomas Muller has scored all his UCL goals - like some other footballers on the list - for only one club: Bayern Munich.
The 30-year-old German forward has not retired yet, so he has still time to promote his position on the UCL all-time top scorers list.
Muller has scored all his 44 UCL goals in the 112 appearances he has had for Bayern Munich since 2008. That gets him a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.39 and means that he has scored almost 2 goals in every 5 UCL appearances he has had for the Bundesliga side. Muller has also won one Champions League title in 2012-13 season with the same club (Bayern Munich).
Alessandro Del Piero (42 Goals)
Italian and Juventus legend, Alessandro Del Piero is the second Italian footballer after Filippo Inzaghi to have scored the most number of goals in the Champions League history. He has actually scored 42 goals in his 89 UCL appearances from 1995 to 2009 and for only one club: Juventus.
So Del Piero gets a 0.47 goal-to-appearance ratio with the numbers mentioned above which means he has scored almost one goal in every two appearances he has had in the Champions League with Juventus. The Italian legend has also won one
UEFA Champions Leaguetitle with the Serie A club in 1995-96 season - the first season he played in UCL.
Sergio Aguero (39 Goals)
The third Argentinian footballer after Lionel Messi and Alfredo Di Stefano on the list of
Champions League Top Scorers of All Time
, Sergio Aguero has scored 39 goals in the 71 appearances he has had in the Champions League for Atletico Madrid, and Manchester City with the latter having a greater share of Aguero’s UCL goals (34) and the former only 5.
With these number of goals and appearances, Aguero gets a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.55 which means he has scored a little bit more than one goal in every two appearances he has had in the Champions League.
And Aguero is not retired yet which means he can still improve his rank on the list of Champions League Highest Goals Scorers of All Time by scoring more goals.
Ferenc Puskas (35 Goals)
The only Hungarian footballer on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time, Ferenc Puskas has scored 35 goals in his 41 UCL appearances that gets him a high goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.85 - even higher than Lionel Messi and Alfredo Di Stefano. That means Puskas has scored 4 goals in every 5 appearances he has had in the Champions League.
Like Alfredo Di Stefano and Eusebio, Puskas is among the footballers who have played in the first editions of the UEFA Champions League. He has actually played in the Champions League from 1956 to 1966 and from among 35 goals he has scored in the major European competition 34 have been scored for Real Madrid and 1 for the Romanian club, Budapest Honved.
Neymar (35 Goals)
And finally it’s a Brazilian footballer’s turn to appear on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time! Neymar has actually scored 35 goals in his 57 UCL appearances for Barcelona and
PSGwhich is shared by 21, and 14 goals by the two clubs, respectively.
Neymar gets a goal-to-appearance ratio of 0.61 with the number of goals he has scored in the Champions League which means he has scored 3 goals in every 5 appearances he has had in the major European competition.
The 28-year-old Brazilian forward has also won one UCL title with Barcelona in 2014-15 season. He was also named in UEFA Champions League Squad of the Season in the same season.
Edinson Cavani (35 Goals)
The only Uruguayan footballer on the list of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time with more than 30 goals, Edinson Cavani has scored 35 goals in his 62 appearances in the Champions League which have been for only two clubs:
Napoliand PSG with the former having a share of 5 and the latter 30 goals Cavani scored in the Champions League.
Cavani’s goal-to-appearance ratio is 0.56 which means the 33-year-old Uruguayan forward has scored a little bit more than 1 goal in every two appearances he has made in the Champions League since 2011. But he has never won a UCL title so far - with any of the clubs mentioned above.
Gerd Muller (34 Goals)
If we were to rank footballers based on their goal-to-appearance ratio in the UEFA Champions League, then Gerd Muller would rank first for sure. The 74-year-old retired German forward has scored 34 goals in his 35 appearances in the Champions League from 1969 to 1977 which gets him a ratio of 0.97.
If he had scored just one more goal, then his ratio would have been 1 meaning that he had exactly scored one goal in every appearance he had made in the Champions League.
And all these goals have been scored for only one club: Bayern Munich. Gerd Muller is actually among the footballers on the list of
Champions League All-time Top Scorers
who has only played for one club in the Champions League.
However, and despite having the highest goal-to-appearance ratio on the list, the retired German footballer has never won a Champions League title with the club he served for the majority of his career (Bayern Munich).
And the List of Champions League Top Scorers of All Time Continues as Follows
The list of Champions League All-time Top Scorers is not limited to the footballers mentioned in this post. In fact, there are still other great footballers like
Ryan Gigs, Kaka, and
Wayne Rooney
who populate the rest of the list, but here we cannot go on more since it’s out of our readers’ patience.
However, below is a concise list of them with only the number of appearances and goals they have scored in the Champions League:
Fernando Morientes, apps: 93, goals: 33
Francisco Gento, apps: 88, goals: 32
Arjen Robben, apps: 110, goals: 31
Samuel Eto'o, apps: 78, goals: 30
Wayne Rooney, apps: 85, goals: 30
Kaka, apps: 86, goals: 30
David Trezeguet, apps: 58, goals: 29
Roy Makaay, apps: 61, goals: 29
Patrick Kluivert, apps: 71, goals: 29
Jean-Pierre Papin, apps: 37, goals: 28
Ryan Giggs, apps: 145, goals: 28
Rivaldo, apps: 73, goals: 27
Mario Gomez, apps: 44, goals: 26
Mario Jardel, apps: 46, goals: 25
Robin van Persie, apps: 59, goals: 25
Luis Suarez, apps: 59, goals: 25
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