MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL GOAL SCORER OF XXI CENTURY

• Jan 19, 2023
• History Statistics

The World’s Best National Goal Scorer of XXI Century: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo finished 2022 as the best goal-scorer of the top national leagues in the world football in XXI Century with 498 goals.
The runner-up Lionel Messi had 11 goals fewer at the end of the past year.
Overall, 89 players in the world have scored 200+ goals in the national top divisions in XXI Century (highlighted green in the table); they are sorted by main ranking (Total Goals XXI). 
Several other players (marked grey) are below 200 league goals in XXI but reached this amount adding the goals from XX century having still scored a significant majority (not less than 65 percent) of their goals in XXI century (so they can be conditionally categorized as the “goal-scorers of XXI century”). They are also listed in the table but not ranked. 
The players in bold are currently active; others finished the career.
Tiebreaking criteria in case of equal number of goals: average strength of leagues (according to IFFHS ranking).

	BEST GOAL SCORERS OF TOP	NATIONAL DIVISIONS
	IN XXI CENTURY
	Player	Nationality	Goals
			XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	498		498
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	487		487
3	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	392	1	393
4	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	364		364
5	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	357		357
6	Nicolás Muñoz	Panama	328		328
7	Aleksandar Đurić	Singapore	304	31	335
8	José Alfredo Castillo	Bolivia	289	4	293
9	Ali Ashfaq	Maldives	288		288
10	Martin Kamburov	Bulgaria	287	1	288
11	Sergio Agüero	Argentina	282		282
12	Samuel Eto'O	Cameroon	282	8	290
13	David Villa	Spain	280		280
14	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	279		279
15	Álvaro Saborío	Costa Rica	279		279
16	Williams Reyes	El Salvador	277	17	294
17	Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	276		276
18	Carlos Saucedo	Bolivia	276		276
19	Rhys Griffiths	Wales	272		272
20	Karim Benzema	France	269		269
21	Dayro Moreno	Colombia	265		265
22	Bafétimbi Gomis	France	260		260
23	André-Pierre Gignac	France	260		260
24	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	Netherlands	257		257
25	Óscar Cardozo	Paraguay	257		257
26	Dejan Damjanović	Montenegro	257		257
27	Neymar	Brazil	255		255
28	Pablo Escobar	Bolivia	251	1	252
29	Cristian Gonzáles	Indonesia	250		250
30	Fred	Brazil	249		249
31	Eran Zahavi	Israel	247		247
32	Ricardo Oliveira	Brazil	244	1	245
33	Luis Tejada	Panama	242	11	253
34	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	239		239
35	Vágner Love	Brazil	239		239
36	Nemanja Nikolić	Hungary	238		238
37	Esteban Paredes	Chile	238		238
38	Víctor Núñez	Costa Rica	237	11	248
39	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	236	14	250
40	Marc Lloyd Williams	Wales	236	83	319
41	Thierry Henry	France	233	52	285
42	Sebastián Tagliabúe	UAE	233		233
43	Wayne Rooney	England	231		231
44	Burak Yılmaz	Turkey	231		231
45	Kris Boyd	Scotland	230		230
46	Klæmint Olsen	Faroe Islands	230		230
47	José Sand	Argentina	229	1	230
48	Michael Wilde	England	229		229
49	Carlos Tevez	Argentina	228		228
50	Hernán Barcos	Argentina	228		228
51	William Ferreira	Uruguay	228		228
52	Sebastián Abreu	Uruguay	227	85	312
53	Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	224	12	236
54	Radamel Falcao	Colombia	224		224
55	Marcus Berg	Sweden	223		223
56	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Gabon	219		219
57	Ranty Martins	Nigeria	218		218
58	Hamdi Salihi	Albania	217		217
59	Chris Venables	England	217		217
60	Humberto Suazo	Chile	216		216
61	Santiago Salcedo	Paraguay	215		215
62	Carlos Kamiani Félix	Mexico	215		215
63	Washington	Brazil	214	26	240
64	Bas Dost	Netherlands	214		214
65	Sebastián Soria	Qatar	214		214
66	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	213	19	232
67	Antonio Di Natale	Italy	209		209
68	Youssef El-Arabi	Morocco	209		209
69	Lee Hunt	England	209		209
70	Israel Silva	Brazil	207		207
71	Andrew Waterworth	Northern Ireland	207		207
72	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	206	16	222
73	Germán Cano	Argentina	206		206
74	Jonas	Brazil	206		206
75	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	Estonia	206	6	212
76	Mario Gómez	Germany	205		205
77	Abderrazak Hamdallah	Morocco	205		205
78	Robin van Persie	Netherlands	204		204
79	Grafite	Brazil	203		203
80	Tarmo Neemelo	Estonia	203	1	204
81	Rudel Calero	Nicaragua	203		203
82	Romelu Lukaku	Belgium	202		202
83	Francesco Totti	Italy	201	49	250
84	Magno Alves	Brazil	201	43	244
85	Lisandro López	Argentina	201		201
86	Mauro Boselli	Argentina	201		201
87	Omar Al Somah	Syria	200		200
88	Daniel Huss	Luxembourg	200	28	228
89	Jason Byrne	Republic of Ireland	200	17	217
	Maksim Gruznov	Estonia	199	105	304
	Roy Makaay	Netherlands	168	89	257
	Claudio Pizarro	Peru	185	51	236
	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Netherlands	159	73	232
	Mirko Grabovac	Singapore	175	54	229
	Alex	Brazil	192	36	228
	Anvar Berdiyev	Uzbekistan	164	61	225
	Ionel Dănciulescu	Romania	148	77	225
	Yevgeniy Boldygin	Kyrgyzstan	154	68	222
	Roman Vasilyuk	Belarus	143	78	221
	Lee Dong-gook	South Korea	196	18	214
	Vioresin Sinani	Albania	179	34	213
	Alessandro Del Piero	Italy	152	61	213
	Alexander Frei	Switzerland	191	18	209
	Dimitar Berbatov	Bulgaria	181	28	209
	Daniel Xhafaj	Albania	176	31	207
	Povilas Lukšys	Lithuania	181	24	205
	Zafar Kholmurodov	Uzbekistan	151	49	200

All goals scored in top national divisions worldwide were taken in account.
Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision).

Period: 
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2022 (for the ranking XXI);
from the career start to December 31, 2022 (for the ranking Career).

Full names of Brazilian players:
Alex = Alexsandro de Souza
Fred = Frederico Chaves Guedes
Grafite = Edinaldo Batista Libânio
Luís Fabiano = Luís Fabiano Clemente
Neymar = Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
Washington = Washington Stecanela Cerqueira