10 Top scorers in the Champions League – Will Haaland and Mbappe Break the Record?
Which player has scored the most goals in the Champions League? This prestigious European football competition is the dream of many top world football players. Here, we look at the highest-scoring players in UCL history. Then, will Haaland and Mbappe break the UCL goal record?
In this article, we share the 10 Top scorers in the Champions League of All Time.
Cristiano Ronaldo: 140 Goals
Cristiano Ronaldo has 140 goals to his name in the UEFA Champions League. The Portuguese top player is presently playing for Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr, and it is unlikely that he will add to the number of goals he has scored while at Manchester United (21), Real Madrid (105) and Juventus (14).
Ronaldo holds the record for most goals in a single Champions League season, with 17 for Real Madrid in the 2013-14 season, when they won the UCL trophy with a win over Atlético Madrid in that season’s final, and he followed it up two years later with 16 goals in 2015-16.
He set a record in 93 different UCL games, accounting for 51% of his appearances in the league.
Lionel Messi: 129 Goals
With 129 goals, Lionel Messi ranks second all-time in UEFA Champions League history. He does, however, hold the UCL record for most goals scored for a single club, with 120 of his 129 goals coming at Barcelona. After joining Ligue 1 heavyweights Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2021, he scored nine more goals. However, after joining the MLS team Inter Miami, he is unlikely to add to his tally of 129 goals.
Messi, the 2022 World Cup winner, has scored in 18 different UCL seasons, including every season since 2005-06. He shares this record with Karim Benzema, but the French attacker has scored in each of his 18 UCL seasons since 2005-06.
He and Cristiano Ronaldo hold the UCL record for most hat-tricks in the competition (eight), but he has done something the Portuguese has never done: score five goals in one Champions League game. He did so in Barcelona’s 7-1 triumph against Bayer Leverkusen in March 2012, as part of his club-record 2011-12 season, in which he scored 73 goals in 60 competitive matches.
Robert Lewandowski: 92 Goals
Robert Lewandowski is on the verge of achieving 100 UEFA Champions League goals, but the Barcelona striker is still eight goals short, and at 35, he may be out of time.
He gave it his all for Barcelona in the 2022-23 season, scoring five goals in five appearances, but their group-stage exit sent them to the UEFA Europa League, giving Lewandowski a longer gap between UCL games than usual.
He scored 69 of his 92 UCL goals after joining Bayern Munich from Borussia Dortmund. He holds the record for most goals scored in Europe for Bayern, surpassing Gerd Müller (65). He also owns the Bundesliga club record for most goals in a single season, with his 15 goals in the 2019-20 season propelling Bayern to victory. As a result, he became the first Polish player to finish as the top scorer in a single UCL/European Cup season.
Karim Benzema: 90 Goals
Karim Benzema has 90 goals and no further goals in the Champions League since his recent transfer to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia.
Benzema has the most goals in a single UCL season and has never failed to score in a season. Since 2005-06 at Lyon, Benzema has scored in every season in the competition.
In the 2021-22 season, the French striker earned the Champions League top scorer award for the first time, with his 15 goals aiding Real Madrid to the trophy, despite failing to score in the final win over Liverpool in Paris.
His 78 goals for Real Madrid in this competition are second only to Cristiano Ronaldo’s 105.
Raúl Gonzalez: 71 Goals
Raul, a former Spanish international, is Real Madrid’s third-most-scoring player in UEFA Champions League history (66). Meanwhile, his 71 goals rank fifth among all players in this competition.
In fact, he remained the player with the most goals in the league until November 2014, when he was ultimately surpassed by Messi and Ronaldo, while the Real Madrid legend was the first to achieve 50 goals in the championship in September 2005. After Alfredo Di Stéfano previously scored 49 goals in European tournaments for the Spanish team, he is the first Real Madrid player to reach 50 goals in Europe.
His final season in the league came in 2010-11 with German team FC Schalke 04, where he scored five goals at the age of 33. This raises his overall tally in the tournament to 71, more than doubling the next-best tally by a Spaniard, Fernando Morientes’ 33.
Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56 Goals
Ruud van Nistelrooy, a Dutch striker, scored 56 goals in the UEFA Champions League overall, but that total may have been higher if he had played more UCL action earlier in his career. He only made 11 appearances for PSV before turning 25 and made his Manchester United debut in the tournament.
Van Nistelrooy (62 appearances) was the fastest player to score 50 UEFA Champions League goals, but he was 31 when he achieved the record.
He set a club record with 35 Champions League goals for Manchester United, surpassing Wayne Rooney (30) and Ryan Giggs (28).
Despite playing 11 seasons in the league and playing for a club that has won the cup 10 times, Van Nistelrooy is the best goal scorer who has never won the UEFA Champions League.
Thomas Müller: 53 Goals
Thomas Müller has just completed his 15th Champions League season with Bayern Munich, scoring 14 goals (except for the 2018-19 season).
He has 53 goals and 23 assists since his competition debut in 2008-09. His record of goals is more than double that of the next highest-scoring German in the competition, Mario Gomez (26).
With Bayern Munich, he won the Champions League twice, in 2012-13 and again in 2019-20.
Thierry Henry: 50 Goals
Thierry Henry scored 50 goals in the UEFA Champions League while playing for three different clubs: Arsenal (35), Barcelona (8), and Monaco (7).
He had an immediate impact as a UCL player, scoring six goals in his first five appearances for Monaco as a 20-year-old before joining Arsenal in 1999-00. His 35 goals for Arsenal made him the most prolific scorer in Champions League/European Cup history.
Alfredo Di Stefano, 49 Goals
Real Madrid won the first five editions, with Argentine-born forward Alfredo Di Stéfano scoring 49 goals, a total no one could match in the 37 seasons before the competition was renamed the Champions League from the European Cup.
Di Stefano, who was born in Argentina, joined Real Madrid as a 27-year-old striker in 1953 and scored a hat-trick in his first El Clásico against Barcelona. He was a star by the conclusion of the season, scoring 27 goals in 28 games and won the league’s best scorer award. He also led Real Madrid to their first La Liga championship in 20 years.
Although his performances in the Spanish League are admirable, we should not overlook the late striker’s effect in European competitions. The competition began in 1955, and Real Madrid quickly established themselves as the dominant power. Madrid won the competition five years in a row with Di Stefano leading the line between 1956 and 1960. Even during the Champions Cup era, they were the only side in Champions League history to accomplish this accomplishment.
Andriy Shevchenko, 48 Goals
Andriy Shevchenko is regarded as one of the best top scorers of his generation. During his seven years at AC Milan, he scored 175 goals in 296 games, including 48 Champions League goals. Shevchenko collected numerous trophies throughout her career, including the Ballon d’Or in 2004.
The Ukrainian had club football success, including UEFA Champions League gold with Milan in 2003, when he netted the game-winning penalty in a shootout against Italian archrivals Juventus in the final. He was unlucky again in 2005, this time with Milan, and again in 2008, this time with English team Chelsea when they lost in the final. He is, however, the fifth most scorer in European competitions, with 67 goals.
Following his excellent tenure at Milan, he moved to English club Chelsea for a reputed sum of more than £30 million. He was injured there and only played 48 games in three seasons, scoring nine goals. In 2008, he returned to Dynamo Kiev on loan for a year before returning to AC Milan. In July 2012, he announced his retirement.
Will Haaland and Mbappe Break the Record?
Kylian Mbappe, 41 Goals
Mbappe scored seven goals in eight Champions League matches for PSG in 2022-23 before being eliminated by Bayern Munich in the final 16. He scored 40 goals in 59 games, fewer than Messi and Robert Lewandowski (61) and 23 games faster than Ronaldo (82).
The French forward also broke Messi’s previous record of 24 years and 130 days to become the youngest of 17 players to reach 40 goals in the competition (23 years, 316 days). Kylian Mbappe currently has 41 goals, which will very probably increase.
Erling Haaland, 35 Goals
Haaland, who is only 23 years old, has now scored 35 goals in 31 Champions League matches. To put that in context, van Nistelrooy previously held the record for most goals scored by a player in his first 30 UCL appearances, scoring 26 goals in his first 30 UCL games – nine fewer than Haaland’s total.
He scored 35 UCL goals 354 days younger than Mbappe while playing half as many games as Mbappe (54) and less than half as many as Messi (55).
When he scored five goals in Man City’s last-16 win over RB Leipzig in March 2022, he became one of three players in Champions League history to do it.
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