In top-level association football competitions, 26 players have scored 500 or more goals in both club and international football, according to research by the IFFHS, [1] first published in 2007. [2] Taking into account competitions of all levels, 82 players have reached the milestone, according to the RSSSF. [3] [4] FIFA, the international governing body of football, has never released a list detailing the highest goalscorers and does not keep official records. [5] [6] It is challenging for statisticians and media to agree on which goals should be counted, with debate over whether to include those scored in friendlies, regional competitions, and even matches taking place during wartime. [7] [8]
Contents
In 2020, FIFA recognised Josef Bican, an Austrian-Czech dual international who played between the 1930s and the 1950s, [9] as the record scorer with an estimated 805 goals, [10] [11] although CNN, the BBC, France 24, and O Jogo all acknowledge that Bican's tally includes goals scored for reserve teams and in unofficial international matches. [6] [12] [13] [14] UEFA, the governing body for European football, ranks him as the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues with 518 goals, narrowly ahead of Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. [15] RSSSF credits Bican with 948 goals, a tally which includes goals scored in winter tournaments, as well as when selected to represent regional and city teams, [16] and the Football Association of the Czech Republic claims a total of 821. [17] [18] Spanish newspapers Marca and Sport state that both Bican and Pelé scored 762 goals. [19] [20] Bican once walked out of a gala held in his honour by the IFFHS after the organisation had excluded war-time goals from his tally, although it later recognised the 229 goals he had scored during the period. [21]
Media outlets like Sky Sports, ESPN, and Globo Esporte argue that for Pelé and his era, friendly matches were important and their goals should count, [22] [23] [24] while journalist Hugh McIlvanney called them "profit-making excursions" with little "relevance to Pelé's reality", [25] and Jonathan Liew said many friendlies were "against up-country teams or down-at-heel invitational sides". [26] When Argentinian forward Lionel Messi was reported to have broken the record for most goals at a single club (644 for Barcelona), Pelé's former club Santos denied it, saying 448 of Pelé's friendly goals had been uncounted, [27] arguing many were against "the best teams of all time", [28] a point Pelé supported by updating his tally to 1,283 on Instagram. [29] Barcelona responded that because Bican, Pelé, Erwin Helmchen, and Abe Lenstra scored mostly in leagues below national level, those goals shouldn't count, [30] and goals from wartime matches, lower tiers, and regional divisions by players like Bican, Ferenc Deák, Puskás, Seeler, Müller, Túlio Maravilha, and Robert Lewandowski are also disputed. [31]
In 2021, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo was reported to have broken the record by scoring his 760th goal, [32] [33] [34] although it was widely accepted as impossible to confirm with certainty since stats from earlier eras are often disputed, [18] [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] as noted by journalist Jonathan Wilson and Corriere dello Sport editor Ivan Zazzaroni, who noted German striker Helmchen may have scored 981 goals. [16] [40] Ronaldo said: "the world has changed since then and football has changed as well, but this doesn't mean we can just erase history according to our interests". [41] Other claims exist; Guinness World Records credits Pelé with the "most career goals" at 1,279, [42] and Brazilian striker Romário claimed his 1,000th goal in 2007 but later admitted it included friendlies; [43] they are reported to have scored 767 and 772 goals respectively, [18] [44] [45] [46] [47] with Pelé's total including one goal for the military team and nine for the state team of São Paulo at the State Team Championship. [48] [49] The Encyclopædia Britannica notes Brazilian Arthur Friedenreich is "officially recognised" by FIFA to have scored 1,329 goals, [50] though there is little evidence. [42] [51] In March 2022, Ronaldo surpassed Bican's estimated 805 goals. [52] [53]
Hungarian Imre Schlosser is generally recognised as the first to reach the 500-goal mark, doing so in 1927 shortly before his retirement. [54] Nine players have accomplished the feat at a single club: Josef Bican (Slavia Prague), Jimmy Jones (Glenavon), Jimmy McGrory (Celtic), Joe Bambrick (Linfield), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich), Pelé (Santos), Fernando Peyroteo (Sporting CP), and Uwe Seeler (Hamburg). [55] Of these nine, Messi scored the most, with 672 goals between his debut in 2004 and his departure in 2021. [56]
