Most Goals in Football History: Top 10 Ranked

Illustration: Fox Bulletin

Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for the most goals in football history, with 979 in official matches as of 18 September 2026. His 979th came for Al-Nassr against Abha on 9 September, leaving him 21 short of a milestone no player has reached on this count: 1,000 goals in top-level league, cup, continental and international football.

Lionel Messi is second on 929, having scored his 100th goal for Inter Miami on 16 September, and the two of them are the only active players in the top six. The ranking uses the official-match method favoured by the IFFHS, which excludes friendlies, reserve games and wartime regional leagues. A second method, explained further down, produces a different podium.

Rank	Player	Nation	Goals	Club + international	Career	Status
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	979	833 + 146	2002 to present	Active, Al-Nassr
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	929	804 + 125	2004 to present	Active, Inter Miami
3	Pelé	Brazil	762	679 + 83	1957 to 1977	Retired
4	Romário	Brazil	756	692 + 64	1985 to 2007	Retired
5	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary and Spain	725	641 + 84	1943 to 1966	Retired
6	Josef Bican	Austria and Czechoslovakia	722	690 + 32	1931 to 1955	Retired
7	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	704	615 + 89	2008 to present	Active, Chicago Fire
8	Jimmy Jones	Northern Ireland	639	630 + 9	1947 to 1964	Retired
9	Gerd Müller	West Germany	634	566 + 68	1964 to 1981	Retired
10	Joe Bambrick	Northern Ireland	626	605 + 21	1926 to 1943	Retired

The 10 Highest Goalscorers in Football History

1. Cristiano Ronaldo: 979 Goals

Matches: 1,333 | International: 146, the record for any country | Clubs: Sporting, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Al-Nassr

Ronaldo passed the long-standing mark of 805 credited to Josef Bican in March 2022 and has added more than 170 since, most of them in Saudi Arabia. ESPN’s running tracker put him at 979 after the Abha match, with 22 goals in 36 games during 2026. At 41 the pace has slowed, but 21 more goals is a single season’s work at his current rate.

His 146 international goals are also the most by any player for any national team, and they are counted in full here because senior internationals are official matches under every method.

2. Lionel Messi: 929 Goals

Matches: 1,175 | International: 125 | Clubs: Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami

Messi’s 672 goals for Barcelona remain the most any player has scored for a single club. His 929th, against Cruz Azul in the Campeones Cup on 16 September 2026, was his 100th for Inter Miami, and his 2026 tally of 33 in 38 games included eight at the World Cup. The 50-goal gap to Ronaldo has been roughly stable for two years, because both keep scoring at a similar rate.

Messi has played 158 fewer matches than Ronaldo, so his strike rate over the two careers is fractionally higher. Both are far enough clear of third place that the order of the top two is the only live question in the table.

3. Pelé: 762 Goals

Career: 1957 to 1977 | Clubs: Santos, New York Cosmos | International: 83 for Brazil

Pelé’s own count was 1,283, a figure that includes 448 goals in friendlies played on the endless tours Santos undertook to pay his wages. Strip those out and the official total is 762, which still places him third on this method. He is the only player in the top ten to have won three World Cups.

4. Romário: 756 Goals

Career: 1985 to 2007 | Clubs: Vasco da Gama, PSV, Barcelona, Flamengo, Fluminense | International: 64 for Brazil

Romário celebrated a 1,000th goal in 2007 with a penalty for Vasco da Gama and later conceded the count included youth, friendly and unofficial games. On official matches he sits fourth on 756, six behind Pelé, from 1,002 games spread across five countries and a career that ran until he was 41.

5. Ferenc Puskás: 725 Goals

Career: 1943 to 1966 | Clubs: Budapest Honvéd, Real Madrid | International: 84 for Hungary

Puskás scored 84 international goals for Hungary’s Mighty Magyars of the 1950s before defecting after the 1956 uprising and later appearing for Spain. The bulk of his club goals came in the Hungarian league, whose top-flight status makes them count in full, before the Real Madrid years that produced four goals in a European Cup final at the age of 33.

6. Josef Bican: 722 Goals

Career: 1931 to 1955 | Clubs: Rapid Vienna, Slavia Prague | International: 32 for Austria and Czechoslovakia

Bican was the record holder before Ronaldo, at least on the 805 that FIFA once credited him with, a figure that included reserve-team and unofficial international goals. The IFFHS, which named him the greatest goalscorer of the twentieth century, counts 722 in 624 official matches, a rate of more than a goal a game that no one else in the top ten approaches.

7. Robert Lewandowski: 704 Goals

Career: 2008 to present | Clubs: Lech Poznań, Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Chicago Fire | International: 89 for Poland

Lewandowski is the third active player in the top ten and the only one still moving up the table. His 89 goals for Poland are a national record, and his 41 in a single Bundesliga season in 2020-21 broke Gerd Müller’s mark that had stood since 1972. Now at Chicago Fire, he is 18 short of Bican and unlikely to reach the top five before retiring.

8. Jimmy Jones: 639 Goals

Career: 1947 to 1964 | Clubs: Glenavon, Larne, Bangor | International: 9 for Northern Ireland

Jones scored almost all of his goals in the Irish League, a full national top flight, which is how a player with a handful of international caps outranks Gerd Müller on this method. He scored 74 in a single season for Glenavon in 1956-57, a record in Northern Irish football.

9. Gerd Müller: 634 Goals

Career: 1964 to 1981 | Clubs: Bayern Munich, Fort Lauderdale Strikers | International: 68 for West Germany

Müller won the World Cup, three European Cups and scored 365 goals in the Bundesliga, still the competition’s career record. His 68 for West Germany in 62 games is a strike rate no one in this table beats at international level.

10. Joe Bambrick: 626 Goals

Career: 1926 to 1943 | Clubs: Glentoran, Linfield, Chelsea | International: 21 for Ireland

Bambrick scored six goals in one international, against Wales in 1930, a British record that still stands. Like Jones he made his total in the Irish League, with 94 in a single season for Linfield in 1930-31. Abe Lenstra of the Netherlands is next on 624, and Luis Suárez, still playing at Inter Miami alongside Messi, is on 612.

Two Counting Methods, Two Different Podiums

The table above follows the IFFHS method: goals in a country’s top division, its main domestic cup, continental club competitions and senior internationals. The RSSSF’s prolific scorers list, updated in August 2026, counts every recorded competitive match including reserve teams, regional leagues and wartime competitions, and its ranking looks very different.

On the RSSSF count Ronaldo has 994 goals in 1,366 games and still leads, but second place goes to Erwin Helmchen, a German striker of the 1920s and 1930s with more than 989, and third to Bican with more than 950. Messi drops to fourth on 948, Pelé to eleventh on 778, and two Britons, Ronald Rooke and Jimmy Jones, enter the top six. Neither method is wrong. They answer different questions, and any ranking that does not say which one it uses is comparing players who were never counted the same way.

Why 1,000 Is the Number to Watch

No player has scored 1,000 official goals under the IFFHS method. Ronaldo needs 21 more, and at his 2026 rate of a goal roughly every 1.6 games that is around 34 matches away, which puts the milestone inside the 2026-27 season if he stays fit. He has said publicly that reaching it is his target before retirement.

Messi would need 71, or about two more seasons at his current pace, so the record is likely to belong to Ronaldo for a long time. The Premier League, where Ronaldo scored 103 of his goals, is covered in our ranking of the clubs with the most Premier League titles, and endurance records of a different kind are in our list of marathon world records over time.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who has scored the most goals in football history?

Cristiano Ronaldo, with 979 goals in official matches as of 18 September 2026, ahead of Lionel Messi on 929. On the broader RSSSF count, which includes reserve and regional games, Ronaldo leads with 994.

Has anyone scored 1,000 goals?

Not in official matches. Pelé and Romário both claimed 1,000, but their totals included friendlies and youth games. Ronaldo is the closest at 979 and could reach 1,000 during the 2026-27 season.

How many goals has Messi scored?

929 in official matches for Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain, Inter Miami and Argentina, including a record 672 for Barcelona and 125 internationals. His most recent came on 16 September 2026 against Cruz Azul.

Who held the record before Ronaldo?

Josef Bican, the Austrian-Czech striker of the 1930s and 1940s, on the 805 goals FIFA credited him with. Ronaldo passed that figure in March 2022. On the official-match method Bican’s total is 722, sixth on the list.

Written by Marcus Feltz

Marcus Feltz handles sport and gaming at Fox Bulletin, writing the record-book rankings and the working code lists that Roblox players rely on. Code lists are re-sourced from each game's own channels every time they are updated, because most of the lists online are quietly out of date.

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