Which players have the most goals scored in the Champions League during the competition’s history? Here, we examine the all-time leading scorers in the UEFA Champions League.
UEFA Champions League Top Scorers
| Player | Goals |
|---|---|
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 140 |
| Lionel Messi | 129 |
| Robert Lewandowski | 94 |
| Karim Benzema | 90 |
| Raúl | 71 |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | 56 |
| Thomas Müller | 53 |
| Thierry Henry | 50 |
| Kylian Mbappé | 48 |
| Andriy Shevchenko | 48 |
| Zlatan Ibrahimovic | 48 |
| Filippo Inzaghi | 46 |
| Didier Drogba | 44 |
| Mohamed Salah | 44 |
| Neymar | 43 |
| Alessandro Del Piero | 42 |
| Sergio Agüero | 41 |
| Erling Haaland | 41 |
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Cristiano Ronaldo: 140 Goals
With 140 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League.
The Portuguese player currently plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, so it’s unlikely that he will add to his total of 21 goals scored during stints at Manchester United (21), Real Madrid (105), and Juventus (14).
With his 17 goals for Real Madrid in 2013–14—as they defeated Atlético Madrid in the Champions League final to win the trophy—and his 16 goals two years later in 2015–16—Ronaldo holds the record for most goals in a single Champions League season.
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The Portuguese legend has won the competition top scorer award on seven different occasions, which is a record across both the European Cup and Champions League eras.
He scored in a record 93 different UCL matches – 51% of his appearances in the competition, while eight of those saw him score a hat-trick, which is a record he shares with Lionel Messi.
Ronaldo found the net against 38 different opponents in his Champions League career, with his 10 goals versus Juventus the most by any single player against an opponent in the history of the competition.
Lionel Messi: 129 Goals
With 129 goals, Lionel Messi is the second-highest scorer in the history of the UEFA Champions League. However, he did manage to tie the record for most goals scored by a single club in UCL history, having scored 120 of his 129 goals at Barcelona.
After joining Ligue 1 powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain in the summer of 2021, he scored nine more goals, but it’s unlikely that he’ll have another opportunity to add to his 129 goals after joining MLS team Inter Miami.
Messi’s record of scoring against 40 different opponents in the UEFA Champions League is a record, ahead of Ronaldo’s tally of 38. Nine of those goals came against Arsenal (7%), his favorite opponent in UCL history.
Overall, 2022 World Cup winner Messi has scored in 18 different seasons of UCL action, netting in every campaign since 2005-06 after failing to score in his only appearance for Barcelona in his debut season of 2004-05. He shares this record with Karim Benzema, but the French striker has managed to score in all 18 of the UCL seasons that he’s played in since 2005-06.
He may share the UCL record for the most hat-tricks in the competition with Cristiano Ronaldo (eight), but he once did something the Portuguese never managed: score five goals in a single Champions League match. He managed this in Barcelona’s 7-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen in March 2012 as part of his record-breaking 2011-12 season in which he scored 73 goals in 60 competitive club appearances.
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Robert Lewandowski: 94 Goals
Robert Lewandowski is edging towards the century of UEFA Champions League goals, but with the Barcelona striker still seven goals away and now 35 years of age, he may run out of time.
He tried his best in 2022-23, with five goals in five appearances for Barcelona, but their group-stage elimination sent them into the UEFA Europa League so Lewandowski had a bigger gap between UCL games than he’s used to. So far in 2023-24, he’s scored three times – versus Antwerp in Barca’s opening game of the campaign and both legs of the last-16 tie against Napoli.
Of his 94 UCL goals, 69 came at Bayern Munich after he arrived from Borussia Dortmund.
He holds the Bayern record for the most goals in Europe, ahead of Gerd Müller (65). He also holds the Bundesliga club’s record for most goals in a single season within the competition, with his 15-goal effort in 2019-20 on the way to Bayern winning the competition. In doing so, he became the first Polish player to finish as the top scorer in a single season of UCL/European Cup action.
Karim Benzema: 90 Goals
With his transfer to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, Karim Benzema might be 90 and out.
Benzema has scored in the most UCL seasons without having failed to find the net in one, scoring in all 18 seasons of the competition since 2005-06 at Lyon.
The French striker won the Champions League top scorer award for the first time in 2021-22, with his 15 goals helping Real Madrid to the title, although he failed to score in the final win over Liverpool in Paris.
His 78 goals for Real Madrid in the competition are only behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s 105.
Raúl: 71 Goals
Former Spanish international Raúl is Real Madrid’s third-highest-scoring player in UEFA Champions League history (66), while his overall tally of 71 is the fifth most of all players in the competition.
Raúl was the top-scoring player in the competition until November 2014, when he was eventually overtaken by Messi and Ronaldo, while the Real Madrid great was the first player to reach 50 goals in the competition, in September 2005. He was the first Real player to reach 50 goals in Europe after Alfredo Di Stéfano had previously scored 49 times in European competition for the Spanish side.
His final season in the competition came at German side FC Schalke 04 in 2010-11, when he scored five times as a 33-year-old. This took his overall tally to 71 in the competition, which is more than double the next best by a Spanish player in the competition: Fernando Morientes’ 33 goals.
Other Players with 50+ UCL Goals
Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56 Goals
Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 56 goals overall in the UEFA Champions League, but that tally could have been more had he played more UCL action earlier in his career. He made just 11 appearances at PSV before his 25th birthday and debut for Manchester United in the competition.
No player reached 50 UEFA Champions League goals quicker than Van Nistelrooy (62 appearances) but he was 31 years old when he broke that mark.
He scored 35 goals in the Champions League for Manchester United – a club record, ahead of Wayne Rooney (30) and Ryan Giggs (28).
Van Nistelrooy is the top-scoring player to have never won the UEFA Champions League, despite playing 11 seasons in the competition and playing for clubs that have won the trophy a combined 10 times.
Thomas Müller: 53 Goals
Thomas Müller just played his 15th Champions League season as a Bayern Munich player, scoring in 14 of these (only failing in 2018-19).
Since his competition debut in 2008-09, he’s scored 53 goals and has 23 assists. His goal tally is more than double that of any other German player in the competition: Mario Gomez (26).
He’s won the Champions League on two occasions with Bayern Munich, in both 2012-13 and 2019-20.
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Thierry Henry: 50 Goals
In the UEFA Champions League, Thierry Henry netted 35 goals for Arsenal, 8 goals for Barcelona, and 7 goals for Monaco.
for the age of 20, he had a grand entrance into the UCL, scoring six goals in his first five games for Monaco, before joining Arsenal for the 1999–00 season. He is now the best-scoring player in Champions League and European Cup history at the Gunners with 35 goals.
Will Haaland and Mbappé Break the Champions League Goal Record?
With all of the players to have scored 50-plus UEFA Champions League goals either retired or in the twilight years of their careers, the focus is now on which players could eventually go on and break the UCL scoring records in years to come.
Kylian Mbappé looks the solid bet to reach 50 goals in the competition next, with the PSG and France forward on 48 UCL goals after enjoying another impressive campaign in 2023-24. He is now just two off the half-century, and few would bet against him reaching that mark this season with the Parisians into the semi-finals.
The speed at which Mbappé is rising in the ranking should begin to worry Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the standings.
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Mbappé scored seven goals in eight Champions League appearances for PSG in 2022-23 before their last 16 elimination to Bayern Munich. He reached 40 goals in the competition in 59 games – two fewer than it took Messi and Robert Lewandowski (61) and 23 games quicker than Ronaldo (82). He is also the youngest of all 17 players to have reached 40 goals in the competition (23 years, 316 days) – breaking Messi’s previous record of doing so at 24 years and 130 days old.
The French star will be looking over his shoulder at Manchester City goalscoring phenomenon Erling Haaland.
Even though he is only 23 years old, Haaland has already scored an absurd 41 goals in 39 Champions League outings. In context, he has already scored as many goals in the UCL as legendary City player Sergio Agüero, although playing 40 fewer games overall.
At the age of 23, 130 days, the Norwegian scored 40 goals in the UCL, 187 days younger than Mbappé, and in fewer games than Lionel Messi (61) and the Frenchman (59).
Haaland also made history in March 2023 when Man City defeated RB Leipzig in the Champions League round of 16, becoming just one of only three players to score five goals in a single game.
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