JAMES TAVERNIER IN THE DEFENDERS 100 GOALS CLUB !
Tavernier joins “Club 100+ goals” for defenders!
James Tavernier became the 14th defender in football history to score 100 top-level goals. The 32-year-old Englishman from Rangers achieved this milestone in the match of Scottish Premier League vs Livingston (2-0) on 12 November.
Tavernier is the third right-back in the 100-goal “club”, along with Manni Kaltz and Nelinho.
He is the only one of the 14 member who has never played for his national team (at least so far). His extremely high scoring rate in games for the club apparently does not cause an interest in him from England coach Gareth Southgate.
On this occasion, we update the all-time ranking for highest scoring defenders in the world football.
The record holder Ronald Koeman is untouchable with 254 goals.
Abderrahmane Hachoud (Algeria) has a chance to enter the “Club 100+” next: now he is at 94 goals.
Only the players which held essential majority of their games as defenders are taken in consideration.
Tiebreaking criteria in case of equal number of total goals: 1) major international goals (MI + NT).
| HIGHEST | SCORING | DEFENDERS | ||||||||||
| Player | Goals | Role | Years | Country | NL | RL | NC | OC | MI | OI | NT | |
| 1 | Ronald Koeman | 254 | CB | 1980-1997 | Netherlands | 193 | 22 | 25 | 14 | |||
| 2 | Daniel Passarella | 175 | CB | 1974-1989 | Argentina | 134 | 13 | 6 | 22 | |||
| 3 | Fernando Hierro | 170 | CB | 1987-2005 | Spain | 110 | 12 | 1 | 17 | 1 | 29 | |
| 4 | Nelinho | 141 | RB | 1970-1987 | Brazil | 54 | 63 | 7 | 11 | 6 | ||
| 5 | Sergio Ramos | 133 | CB | 2004- | Spain | 78 | 8 | 3 | 21 | 23 | ||
| 6 | Roberto Carlos | 125 | LB | 1991-2015 | Brazil | 66 | 14 | 9 | 25 | 11 | ||
| 7 | Laurent Blanc | 124 | CB | 1987-2003 | France | 96 | 5 | 2 | 5 | 16 | ||
| 8 | Edgardo Bauza | 111 | CB | 1977-1992 | Argentina | 109 | 2 | |||||
| 9 | Manfred Kaltz | 110 | RB | 1971-1991 | Germany | 77 | 15 | 10 | 8 | |||
| 10 | Siniša Mihajlović | 109 | CB | 1988-2006 | Yugoslavia/Serbia | 66 | 19 | 14 | 10 | |||
| 11 | Bruno Pezzey | 105 | CB | 1973-1990 | Austria | 73 | 14 | 9 | 9 | |||
| 12 | Hans-Jürgen Dörner | 105 | CB | 1969-1985 | East Germany | 65 | 24 | 7 | 9 | |||
| 13 | Marcus Tulio Tanaka | 104 | CB | 2001-2019 | Japan | 75 | 5 | 13 | 3 | 8 | ||
| 14 | James Tavernier | 100 | RB | 2009- | England | 69 | 3 | 8 | 20 |
Abbreviatures:
NL = National Leagues (only top divisions),
RL = Regional Leagues (only top divisions),
NC = National Cup,
OC = other relevant domestic club competitions, including League Cup, Super Cup etc.,
MI = major international club competitions, held by FIFA and continental confederations,
OI = other relevant international club competitions (Copa Iberoamericana for Hierro),
NT = National Team (only “full internationals”).