The Best Forwards in Football History
Mohamed Salah, Luis Suárez, Thierry Henry, and Kylian Mbappé are some of the greatest strikers ever, but who are the best forwards in football history? Find out here!
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The best forwards in football history is subjective. The role of the forwards is to set up goals by providing assists and goal involvement and to score. The current crop of forwards in the English Premier League, includes Mohamed Salah, Erling Haaland, Diogo Jota, and Bukayo Saka. Robert Lewandowski, Alvaro Morata, Gerard Moreno, Vinicius Jr., and Lamine Yamal make up the superstars in La Liga.
Haaland is the best striker in world football. He has scored the most goals for two years running in the Premier League. Salah is the best right winger in the world, scoring the most goals by a winger in any league in Europe in 2023/2024. Vinicius Jr. is the best left winger in the world. He helped Real Madrid to the UEFA Champions League and La Liga double in 2023/2024. These forwards have hit the ground running in 2024/25 and will be near the top of the scoring charts again.
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However, the top 10 goal scorers in football are a who’s who of great players from yesteryear and the modern game. Three players are still active, while the other seven are retired or deceased. Two Brazilians make the best forwards list. The rest of the chart comprises one player from Argentina, Austria, West Germany, Holland, Poland, Northern Ireland, and Portugal. One player represented both Hungary and Spain.
Three players have scored over 800 goals, and two footballers are closing in on 900 strikes. It is no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi top the charts with more than 800 goals. Messi is not only the greatest Argentina player ever, but he’s also the best player to grace the game. Josef Bican (805) is third on the all-time list for goals.
However, the records are unreliable, and many goals are from lower divisions and junior football. This is the case with all the players whose careers did not begin in the twenty-first century. There is no evidence to back up the stats of the seven players whose careers began and/or ended in the twentieth century.
Ronaldo has scored the most goals, and Messi has provided the most assists. They are the top scorers and assist providers in football history. Robert Lewandowski is the only other active player in the top 10 best forwards list. There are records of assists from all the other players. However, it’s inconceivable that Pelé provided eight assists, or that Ferenc Puskás only set up sixteen goals for his team-mates. Moreover, Bican is credited with no assists, which is highly unlikely.
The Top 10 Best Forwards in Football History
| Rank | Players | Country | Games | Goals | Assists |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 1,232 | 895 | 285 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 1,072 | 846 | 416 |
| 3 | Josef Bican* | Austria | 530 | 805 | - |
| 4 | Ferenc Puskás* | Hungary / Spain | 746 | 760 | - |
| 5 | Pelé* | Brazil | 831 | 757 | - |
| 6 | Gerd Müller* | West Germany | 793 | 734 | - |
| 7 | Romário* | Brazil | 970 | 710 | - |
| 8 | Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 927 | 654 | 186 |
| 9 | Jimmy Jones* | Northern Ireland | 614 | 647 | - |
| 10 | Abe Lenstra* | Netherlands | 650 | 645 | - |
Cristiano Ronaldo is the Best Forward in Football History
Cristiano Ronaldo is still doing his thing. He is the best forward in football history. Ronaldo is the all-time highest scorer in international football, netting 130 goals in 212 matches. He is also the highest-ever scorer in the UEFA European Championships. The Portugal captain may have had a dismal 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, and a terrible 2024 UEFA European Championships in France.
Ronaldo was, however, the top scorer in world football in 2024. He netted 51 times for club and country in 2023/24, the only player to pass a half-century of goals. Ronaldo only provided 16 assists all season. These are diminished returns for a playmaker of his quality, not to mention the standard of the national league he plays in.
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CR7 assisted 13 times for Al Nassr and three times for Portugal. He set up 11 goals in the Saudi Pro League, one in the AFC Champions League qualification and one in the Champions League. He only provided three assists for Portugal. Ronaldo shows no sign of quitting international football, saying he wants to reach the 900-goal mark.
Speaking to the media ahead of Portugal’s UEFA Nations League clash with Croatia, on September 5, 2024, Ronaldo said he wanted to continue to play for his country so long as he “adds value” to the team. He added that he wanted to help “Portugal win the Nations League,” which they won in 2019. “We’ve already won that competition once and we want to do it again. I’m not thinking long term, but short term.” Do not bet against him.
Kaylan Geekie is a sports fanatic. He attended Durban High School before moving to Scotland, where he lived for 15 years. During his time in the United Kingdom, Kaylan graduated with a first-class BA Honours Degree in Sports Journalism at the University of the West of Scotland. Kaylan worked for nine years as the Match-Day Editor of SuperXV.com, reporting on Super Rugby, The Rugby Championship, the 2015 Men's Rugby World Cup and the 2017 British & Irish Lions series for the website.