THE WORLD'S BEST NATIONAL GOAL SCORER OF XXI CENTURY

• Jan 5, 2022
• History Statistics

Picture : Cristiano Ronaldo - Sporting Portugal 2002/03, Manchester United 2003/09 , Real Madrid 2009/18, Juventus FC 2018/2021, Manchester United since 2021.

The World’s Best National Goal Scorer of XXI Century at Jan 1, 2022: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo is currently the best goal-scorer of the top national leagues in the world football in XXI Century at the beginning of 2022. His tally is as high as 487 goals. 25 of them were added in 2021.
Lionel Messi has added 24 goals for the last year and is now at the mark of 475.
Overall, 64 players in the world have scored 200+ goals in the national top divisions in XXI Century. Carlos Kamiani (Mexico), Chris Venables (England) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon) have reached 200-goal milestone in 2021.
All these players are marked by blue in the table and sorted by main ranking (goals in XXI Century).
Also we put in the table other 19 players (marked by orange) who are below 200 goals in XXI but have reached this amount adding the goals they scored in XX century. So, we get an additional ranking (Career goals). 
These 19 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 Career ranking.
The players marked in bold are currently active; others finished the career.

	THE WORLD's BEST	GOAL-SCORERS
	OF TOP NATIONAL	DIVISIONS
	IN XXI CENTURY
	Player	Nationality	Goals		Total
			XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	487		487
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	475		475
3	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	391	1	392
4	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	352		352
5	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	328		328
6	Aleksandar Đurić	Singapore	304	35	339
7	Ali Ashfaq	Maldives	290		290
8	José Alfredo Castillo	Bolivia	288	4	292
9	Martin Kamburov	Bulgaria	288	1	289
10	Sergio Agüero	Argentina	282		282
11	Samuel Eto'O	Cameroon	282	8	290
12	David Villa	Spain	280		280
13	Carlos Saucedo	Bolivia	276		276
14	Rhys Griffiths	Wales	272		272
15	Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	271		271
16	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	263		263
17	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	Netherlands	257		257
18	Dejan Damjanović	Montenegro	252		252
19	Pablo Escobar	Bolivia	251	1	252
20	Cristian Gonzáles	Indonesia	251		251
21	Karim Benzema	France	250		250
22	Fred	Brazil	248		248
23	Ricardo Oliveira	Brazil	244	1	245
24	Óscar Cardozo	Paraguay	244		244
25	Bafétimbi Gomis	France	244		244
26	Vágner Love	Brazil	238		238
27	Víctor Núñez	Costa Rica	237	11	248
28	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	236	14	250
29	Esteban Paredes	Chile	236		236
30	Marc Lloyd Williams	Wales	236	83	319
31	André-Pierre Gignac	France	235		235
32	Neymar	Brazil	234		234
33	Eran Zahavi	Israel	233		233
34	Thierry Henry	France	232	52	284
35	Wayne Rooney	England	231		231
36	Nemanja Nikolić	Hungary	231		231
37	Carlos Tevez	Argentina	228		228
38	Sebastián Tagliabúe	UAE	228		228
39	Sebastián Abreu	Uruguay	227	85	312
40	Burak Yılmaz	Turkey	227		227
41	Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	224	12	236
42	José Sand	Argentina	222	1	223
43	Radamel Falcao	Colombia	221		221
44	Klæmint Olsen	Faroe Islands	221		221
45	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	218		218
46	Ranty Martins	Nigeria	218		218
47	Andrew Waterworth	Northern Ireland	216		216
48	Washington	Brazil	214	26	240
49	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	213	19	232
50	Humberto Suazo	Chile	213		213
51	Marcus Berg	Sweden	210		210
52	Antonio Di Natale	Italy	209		209
53	Carlos Kamiani	Mexico	209		209
54	Lee Hunt	England	209		209
55	Chris Venables	England	207		207
56	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	206	16	222
57	Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko	Estonia	206	6	212
58	Mario Gómez	Germany	205		205
59	Robin van Persie	Netherlands	204		204
60	Grafite	Brazil	203		203
61	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Gabon	202		202
62	Francesco Totti	Italy	201	49	250
63	Magno Alves	Brazil	201	43	244
64	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
	Alex	Brazil	192	36	228
	Mirko Grabovac	Singapore	174	53	227
	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
	Daniel Huss	Luxembourg	185	28	213
	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, 2021 (for the ranking XXI);
from the career start to December 31, 2021 (for the ranking Career).

Tiebreaking criteria in case of equal number of goals: average strength of leagues (according to IFFHS ranking).

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