THE WORLD'S BEST GOALSCORER OF XXI CENTURY
Picture : Number 1 Cristiano Ronaldo
The World’s Best Goal Scorer of XXI Century at Jan 1, 2022: Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo leads the category of best goal-scorers in the world top football in XXI Century at the beginning of 2022.
The Portuguese has scored 803 goals; he added 47 to his tally in 2021.
Lionel Messi has added 43 for last year and is now at 758.
А colossal gap (almost 200 goals) separates them from all other strikers.
Currently 40 players in the world have scored 300+ goals in XXI century. They are marked by blue in the table and sorted by main ranking (Total Goals XXI).
7 of them have reached 300-goal mark in 2021: Bafétimbi Gomis (France), Dejan Damjanović (Montenegro), José Alfredo Castillo (Bolivia), Vágner Love (Brazil), Martin Kamburov (Bulgaria), Marcus Berg (Sweden), Sebastián Tagliabúe (UAE).
Also we put in the table other 18 players (marked by green) which are below 300 goals in XXI but have reached this amount adding the goals they scored in XX century. So, we get additional ranking (Total Goals Career).
These 18 players have still scored a solid majority (not less than 65 percent) of their goals in XXI century (respectively, not more than 35 percent in XX) so they can be conditionally considered as the “goal-scorers of XXI century”. They are sorted in the table by Total Career ranking.
For the players who have goals in both centuries, those scored in XX are taken in brackets in the particular columns (NL, NC, ICC, NT).
The players marked in bold are currently active; others finished the career.
| THE WORLD’s BEST | GOAL SCORERS | ||||||||
| OF XXI CENTURY | |||||||||
| Player | Country | Goals | Total | Total | Total | ||||
| NL | NC | ICC | NT | XXI | XX | Career | |||
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 487 | 51 | 150 | 115 | 803 | 803 | |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 475 | 70 | 133 | 80 | 758 | 758 | |
| 3 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | Sweden | 391 (+1) | 46 (+2) | 57 | 62 | 556 | 3 | 559 |
| 4 | Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 328 | 49 | 91 | 74 | 542 | 542 | |
| 5 | Luis Suárez | Uruguay | 352 | 42 | 53 | 65 | 512 | 512 | |
| 6 | Ali Ashfaq | Maldives | 290 | 95 | 30 | 57 | 472 | 472 | |
| 7 | Sergio Agüero | Argentina | 282 | 40 | 63 | 41 | 426 | 426 | |
| 8 | Edinson Cavani | Uruguay | 271 | 46 | 55 | 53 | 425 | 425 | |
| 9 | Samuel Eto'O | Cameroon | 282 (+8) | 27 | 49 | 51 (+5) | 409 | 13 | 422 |
| 10 | Aleksandar Đurić | Singapore | 304 (+35) | 45 | 33 | 26 | 408 | 35 | 443 |
| 11 | Neymar | Brazil | 234 | 40 | 57 | 70 | 401 | 401 | |
| 12 | Karim Benzema | France | 250 | 36 | 79 | 36 | 401 | 401 | |
| 13 | David Villa | Spain | 280 | 18 | 28 | 59 | 385 | 385 | |
| 14 | Klaas-Jan Huntelaar | Netherlands | 257 | 28 | 55 | 42 | 382 | 382 | |
| 15 | Edin Džeko | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 218 | 30 | 50 | 60 | 358 | 358 | |
| 16 | Wayne Rooney | England | 231 | 30 | 43 | 53 | 357 | 357 | |
| 17 | Ricardo Oliveira | Brazil | 244 (+1) | 69 | 39 | 5 | 357 | 1 | 358 |
| 18 | Luís Fabiano | Brazil | 236 (+14) | 52(+1) | 40 | 28 | 356 | 15 | 371 |
| 19 | Gonzalo Higuaín | Argentina | 263 | 17 | 39 | 31 | 350 | 350 | |
| 20 | Robbie Keane | Republic of Ireland | 224 (+12) | 36 (+2) | 23 (+1) | 61 (+7) | 344 | 22 | 366 |
| 21 | Firas Al-Khatib | Syria | 185 (+5) | 99 | 24 | 36 | 344 | 5 | 349 |
| 22 | Fred | Brazil | 248 | 39 | 38 | 18 | 343 | 343 | |
| 23 | Óscar Cardozo | Paraguay | 244 | 29 | 52 | 12 | 337 | 337 | |
| 24 | Didier Drogba | Ivory Coast | 188 | 33 | 50 | 65 | 336 | 336 | |
| 25 | Bader Al-Mutawa | Kuwait | 145 | 71 | 63 | 56 | 335 | 335 | |
| 26 | Radamel Falcao | Colombia | 221 | 20 | 59 | 35 | 335 | 335 | |
| 27 | Thierry Henry | France | 232 (+52) | 16 (+1) | 42 (+17) | 43 (+8) | 333 | 78 | 411 |
| 28 | Eran Zahavi | Israel | 233 | 35 | 31 | 33 | 332 | 332 | |
| 29 | Bafétimbi Gomis | France | 244 | 35 | 48 | 3 | 330 | 330 | |
| 30 | Dejan Damjanović | Montenegro | 252 | 29 | 41 | 8 | 330 | 330 | |
| 31 | Robin van Persie | Netherlands | 204 | 39 | 29 | 50 | 322 | 322 | |
| 32 | Carlos Tevez | Argentina | 228 | 38 | 43 | 13 | 322 | 322 | |
| 33 | Nemanja Nikolić | Hungary | 231 | 67 | 14 | 8 | 320 | 320 | |
| 34 | José Alfredo Castillo | Bolivia | 288(+4) | 4 | 15 | 6 | 313 | 4 | 317 |
| 35 | Cristian Gonzáles | Indonesia | 251 | 41 | 7 | 12 | 311 | 311 | |
| 36 | Vágner Love | Brazil | 238 | 20 | 58 | 4 | 310 | 310 | |
| 37 | Mario Gómez | Germany | 205 | 30 | 42 | 31 | 308 | 308 | |
| 38 | Martin Kamburov | Bulgaria | 288(+1) | 18(+1) | 1 | 307 | 2 | 309 | |
| 39 | Marcus Berg | Sweden | 210 | 32 | 39 | 24 | 305 | 305 | |
| 40 | Sebastián Tagliabúe | UAE | 228 | 51 | 22 | 3 | 304 | 304 | |
| Sebastián Abreu | Uruguay | 227 (+85) | 18 (+6) | 19 (+9) | 23 (+3) | 287 | 103 | 390 | |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | Netherlands | 159 (+73) | 28 (+7) | 62 | 34 (+1) | 283 | 81 | 364 | |
| Marc Lloyd Williams | Wales | 236 (+83) | 35(+6) | 271 | 89 | 360 | |||
| Claudio Pizarro | Peru | 185 (+51) | 32 (+2) | 41 (+9) | 17 (+3) | 275 | 65 | 340 | |
| Maksim Gruznov | Estonia | 199 (+105) | 26(+1) | 3 (+3) | 228 | 109 | 337 | ||
| Dimitar Berbatov | Bulgaria | 181 (+28) | 29 (+5) | 27 (+7) | 46 (+2) | 283 | 42 | 325 | |
| Magno Alves | Brazil | 201(+43) | 51(+14) | 15 | 267 | 57 | 324 | ||
| Alex | Brazil | 192(+36) | 32(+12) | 22(+17) | 5(+7) | 251 | 72 | 323 | |
| Roy Makaay | Netherlands | 168 (+89) | 23 (+3) | 27 (+5) | 6 | 224 | 97 | 321 | |
| Dirk Kuyt | Netherlands | 213 (+19) | 26 (+8) | 29 | 24 | 292 | 27 | 319 | |
| Alessandro Del Piero | Italy | 152 (+61) | 20 (+5) | 25 (+29) | 13 (+14) | 210 | 109 | 319 | |
| Francesco Totti | Italy | 201 (+49) | 13 (+6) | 30 (+8) | 5 (+4) | 249 | 67 | 316 | |
| Lee Dong-gook | South Korea | 196 (+18) | 24 (+5) | 37 | 25 (+8) | 282 | 31 | 313 | |
| Washington | Brazil | 214 (+26) | 45 (+3) | 22 | 2 | 283 | 29 | 312 | |
| Alexander Frei | Switzerland | 191 (+18) | 19 (+5) | 30 (+2) | 42 | 282 | 25 | 307 | |
| Miroslav Klose | Germany | 169 (+6) | 25 | 29 (+2) | 71 | 294 | 8 | 302 | |
| Frank Lampard | England | 173 (+19) | 42 (+10) | 25 (+4) | 29 | 269 | 33 | 302 | |
| Diego Forlán | Uruguay | 206 (+16) | 15 | 26 (+2) | 36 | 283 | 18 | 301 |
All goals at top senior level are counted (top national divisions, national cups, official international tournaments, official games between national teams).
Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision).
Abbreviatures:
NL – National League
NC – National Cups
ICC – International Club Competitions
NT – National Team
Period:
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2021 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2021 (for the ranking Total Career).
Tiebreaking criteria in case of equal number of total goals: 1) international goals (ICC + NT), 2) goals scored for national team (NT), 3) goals scored in domestic league (NL).
Full names of Brazilian players:
Alex = Alexsandro de Souza
Fred = Frederico Chaves Guedes
Luís Fabiano = Luís Fabiano Clemente
Neymar = Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
Washington = Washington Stecanela Cerqueira