Top Goal Scorers in UEFA European Championship History

It will be no surprise to any football fan who the top goal scorers in UEFA European Championship history are, especially the number one on a lengthy list of legends. Cristiano Ronaldo, the greatest striker in football history also tops the championship leading scorer’s list. Ronaldo is also the all-time top scorer in Europe and world football.

Every position has an integral part to play on the football pitch. Domestic league titles are won by teams with the best players in all departments. To win the league, a club needs a great goalkeeper, a solid defence, creative midfielders, and wingers, but most of all, they must possess a world-class striker.

Being a goalkeeper might be the hardest position to play in football, but the most pressure lies with the goal scorers. Although successful teams live and die by their defensive record and goals, it is the strikers who take the bulk of the criticism for failure. Tournament football is no different to league football. 

There is a mini-league during the group stages before the knockout football starts. The UEFA Euros are the toughest international football tournament in the world. The strength of competition is a higher degree than the FIFA World Cup or the Copa America in South America. 

It is rare a country tastes European Championship success without a great goal scorer. However, countries with great goal scorers do not always taste success, but there is always hope of glory if there is a goal getter in the team. The championship’s leading scorers (six goals or more) come from seven countries.

Two-time winners France leads the way with three championship leading scorers. One-time winners Portugal and Netherlands each have two players on the leading scorers on the all-time championship top scorers list. Losing Euro 2020 finalists, England, also have two players.

Belgium, Spain, and Sweden each have one player on the top championship scorer’s chart. Indeed, SportsBoom has put together a list of the UEFA European Championship leading scorers in history. They are some of the greatest Euro strikers of all time. 

EUFA European Championship Goals Breakdown

The first-ever goal European Championship goal was scored by Yugoslavia’s Milan Galić at the 1960 European Nations' Cup. Since Galić’s strike, 829 goals have been scored across 16 tournaments, not including shoot-out penalties. The tournament has produced 479 different goal scorers. 

Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) holds the championship goal record, with 14 goals – the only player with double-digit goals – five ahead of Michel Platini (France), who is the second-best championship top scorer of all time. Platini, however, scored his nine goals in five games, while Ronaldo’s 14 have come in 25 matches. Moreover, the French forward only played one tournament, while Ronaldo is about to play a record-extending sixth Euros.

A further breakdown of the competition’s goals shows 311 players have scored one goal at the European Championship. Eighty-nine players have score twice, 42 players three times, and 16 players have netted four goals. In total, 37 players have scored four or more goals at the Euros.

Nine players have scored five goals, eight players six times, and two players have bagged seven goals during the tournament’s illustrious 64-year history. Platini is the only player with nine goals, and Ronaldo sits top with 14 strikes. Of the 16 tournaments played, 37 players have scored a goal in the final. Alan Shearer (England) and Antoine Griezmann (France) are equal-third on the all-time top championship scorers list.

Only four players have scored two goals in a final – three players from West Germany/Germany and one from Spain. Gerd Müller (1972), Horst Hrubesch (1980), Oliver Bierhoff (1996) all bagged braces for Die Mannschaft in a European Championship final. Fernando Torres, however, scored a goal in each of Spains 2008 and 2012 successful finals.

EUFA European Championship Greatest Goals Scorers

Ronaldo might sit top of the UEFA European Championship goal scoring charts, and third-most hat-tricks in football history, but second-placed Platini only played five games at one tournament, scoring two hat-tricks, including one perfect treble (left foot, right foot, header). He proved a ‘big game’ player when he also  scored in the semi-final and final to help France win their home tournament in 1984.

There has only been eight hat-tricks scored at the 16 European Championships, one every other tournament. Platini is the only player to two trebles at the tournament. Curiously, there were no hat-tricks at the first four tournaments. Dieter Müller was the first to score three goals in a game when West Germany beat Yugoslavia 4-2 in 1976. 

Fellow countryman Klaus Allofs became the second player to score a hat-trick, four years later. Platini netted his two trebles in 1984. Holland legend Marco van Baston grabbed a hat-trick in 1988, but it would be 12 years until another player did the same. Sérgio Conceição broke the drought when the Portuguese hit three against Germany in 2000. Holland’s Patrick Kluivert also did so at Euro 2000.

Finally, the last player to net a hat-trick was Spain’s David Villa. Villa score three times against Russia in 2008. Since the Spaniard’s treble, no player has scored three goals in a game across the last three tournaments. Fellow countryman Torres is the only player to score in two winning finals (2008 & 2012). Spain sandwiched those two European crowns with the 2010 FIFA World Cup, which made them one of the best football teams of all time.