Highest Goal Scorer In Football History: Top 10

There have been countless great strikers to grace their presence in the beautiful game. But who is the highest goal scorer in football history?

Association Football's most glorified position is the goal scorer: the striker or attacking forward who finds the back of the net to send the supporters into raptures.

Goals are the sport's most precious commodity and the hardest thing to achieve throughout 90 minutes.

Scoring goals is vital to be successful, and football is about winning and collecting trophies.

There have been many legendary goal scorers: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Pele, Maradona, Ronaldo, Dixie Dean, Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearer, Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland and Thierry Henry, to name a few.

The list could go on forever, but Sportsboom.com is compiling the list of the top 10 highest goal scorers in football history.

The 21st century has seen many great players, great strikers especially, who have redefined the art of goal-scoring with their exceptional skill, athleticism, and dedication to the game. 

Messi and Ronaldo: The Highest Goal Scorers in Football History

But the last 20 years have been dominated by two of the greatest players of all time: Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

In 2021, Cristiano Ronaldo broke Pelé's all-time goal-scoring record in history.

During the same year, Messi broke Pelé's record for most goals scored for a single club (Barcelona).

The rivalry between Messi and Ronaldo (and their super fans) took on a life of its own.

It has been a wild ride in the age of these two celestial beings going toe-to-toe on and off the field.

Both players competed during the most intense, heated, and controversial sporting rivalries in the sport.

Both played for eternal arch-enemies Barcelona and Real Madrid under the best managers in world football, Pep Guardiola and José Mourinho.

In the age of social media, their competition intensified as the debate raged online, in the studio, on school playgrounds, or around the water cooler at work.

They are two of the greatest players of all time - if not the greatest - and both are currently the leading goal-scorers in football history.

*The following is a list of the top goal scorers in the history of football according to the data available. 

1. Cristiano Ronaldo | 879 Goals

Ronaldo is the all-time highest goal scorer in the world with 879 official goals.

The Portuguese, who is showing no signs of stopping, is followed by Messi. Both players look set to play to their 40s, so expect the records to stack up.

2. Lionel Messi | 826 Goals

Messi has scored 826 goals. The Argentinian has won the Ballon d'Or a record eight times, three more than Ronaldo.  

Messi achieved football's entire trophy haul when he led Argentina to a third FIFA World Cup title in 2022. 

3. Josef Bican | 805 Goals

Surprisingly, Josef Bican is third all-time with 805 goals. The legendary Austrian-Czech striker scored 395 in 217 games for Slavia Prague from 1937 to 1948.

It is said Bican scored close to 1,500 goals in total during his playing days, but only 805 of those were recognised by FIFA.

4. Romario | 772 Goals

Brazilian Romario is back in fourth with 772 goals. This puts him over Hungarian and Real Madrid icon Ferenc Puskás.

5. Ferenc Puskás | 760 Goals

Known as the “Galloping Major”, Puskás was recognized as the greatest top division scorer of the 20th century by the IFFHS in 1995.

Puskás was an attacking midfielder with an eye for goal. He scored 84 goals in 85 international matches for Hungary.

The annual FIFA Puskás Award is awarded to the player who has scored the "most beautiful goal" over the course of the past year.

Pelé | 757 Goals

Pelé sits sixth, the only player to not play in Europe, which is often used against the Brazilian for "greatest player of all time" debates.

His 1,279 goals in 1,363 games, which includes friendlies, is recognised as a Guinness World Record.

Pelé was nicknamed 'O Rei' (The King) following the 1958 World Cup. He scored 77 goals in 92 games for Brazil and held the record as the national team's top goal scorer for over fifty years.

At club level, Pelé is Santos's all-time top goal scorer with 643 goals in 659 games.

7. Gerd Müller | 734 Goals

Gerd Müller scored 734 goals in a stellar career. The striker's most important goal of the 68 he scored in 62 internationals for West Germany was the winner in the 1974 World Cup final against Netherlands in Munich.

His record of 40 goals scored in a single Bundesliga season stood for 49 years. It was broken by Robert Lewandowski in May 2021.

8. Jimmy Jones | 647 Goals

Jimmy Jones is the leading goal scorer in the history of Irish League Football, with 647 goals, which puts him at No. 8 on the list of highest scorers in football history.

9. Abe Lenstra | 645 Goals

Abe Lenstra is regarded as one of the greatest players ever to hail from the Netherlands. The Dutchman scored 647 goals.

Lenstra played a total of 47 games for Holland, scoring 33 goals. He sits ninth on the greatest goal scorers list.