HIGHEST SCORING DEFENDER IN THIRD DECADE OF XXI CENTURY

• Jan 11, 2024
• History Statistics

Highest Scoring Defender in 3rd Decade XXI after 2023: James Tavernier

James Tavernier, an English right-back from Glasgow Rangers, dominates the ranking for highest scoring defenders in the world football in the 3rd decade of XXI century (2021-2030) after its first three years (2021, 2022, 2023).
With astonishing 26 goals notched over the past year, Tavernier has already amassed 54 in this decade, 15 more than any other prolific defenders.
Besnik Krasniqi (Kosovo) and Benjamin Mata (Cook Islands) run behind him with 39 goals each.
As of the end of 2023, 15 defenders have scored 20+ goals.
Next to a player’s total goals for a player, his penalty goals are indicated. All three leaders have benefitted much by such way to score. 
But there are those who don’t use this chance at all. Kendall Waston (Costa Rica) has scored all his 27 decade goals from open play, and this is the maximum amount of individual open-play goals at the moment within the decade (4 more than Tavernier’s, for instance).
We have only included in the ranking the players who featured as defenders in vast majority of their games inside the decade in consideration (even if they were mostly used as midfielders before).

	HIGHEST   SCORING		DEFENDERS
	IN  3rd  DECADE  OF	XXI	CENTURY				2021-	2023
	Player	Role	Country	DL	DC	ICC	NT	Goals	Pen.	2021	2022	2023
1	James Tavernier	RB	England	36	6	12		54	32	6	22	26
2	Benjamin Mata	CB	Cook Islands	30	8	1		39	29	11	7	21
3	Besnik Krasniqi	RB	Kosovo	37	2			39	29	15	15	9
4	Ali Maâloul	LB	Tunisia	20	3	5	2	30	22	11	6	13
5	Höskuldur Gunnlaugsson	RB	Iceland	17	7	6		30	10	8	7	15
6	Carlos Ramírez	CB	Colombia	24	3	1		28	19	4	13	11
7	Kendall Waston	CB	Costa Rica	21		3	3	27	0	9	8	10
8	Ramin Rezaeian	RB	Iran	15	2	4	4	25	4	7	4	14
9	Alexander Scholz	CB	Denmark	18	2	5		25	22	6	5	11
10	David Hancko	CB	Slovakia	14	2	5	3	24	8	12	8	4
11	Gustavo Gómez	CB	Paraguay	13	2	6	1	22	3	5	11	6
12	Victor Cardozo	CB	Brazil	19		3		22	15	6	8	8
13	Achraf Hakimi	RB	Morocco	15		1	5	21	0	8	7	6
14	Aleix Cisteró	LB	Spain	17	2	1		20	10	6	14
15	Vincent Atingah	CB	Ghana	20				20	15	2	7	11

The ranking published here provides a breakdown of goals both by tournaments (to the left of the total amount) and by years (to the right).
All top-level goals are taken into account:
DL = domestic leagues (only national and regional top tier),
DC = relevant domestic cups
ICC = international club competitions,
NT = national team.
Tie-breakers: 1) more international goals (ICC+NT), 2) more national team goals (NT), 3) more domestic league goals (DL), 4) more open-play goals.
Period: from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2023.