CONMEBOL HIGHEST SCORING DEFENDER OF XXI CENTURY

• Feb 10, 2024
• History Statistics

CONMEBOL  Highest Scoring Defender of XXI Century: Dani Alves 

Dani Alves, currently awaiting a court verdict, leads the ranking of most scoring South American defenders in XXI century after 2023.
He has scored as many goals (75) as Juninho (Anselmo Vendrechovski Júnior) and takes the top position due to tie-breaker (more international goals, ICC + NT).
All 6 highest positions in the ranking are occupied by Brazilians; among 25 South American defenders who reached 50 top level goals in this century 19 are from Brazil.
3 other players are below 300 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. They are also listed in the table but not classified.

	HIGHEST   SCORING		DEFENDERS
	IN XXI CENTURY		CONMEBOL    2001-2023
	Player	Role	Country	DL	DC	ICC	NT	Total	Total	Total
								XXI	XX	Career
1	Dani Alves	RB	Brazil	40	11	16	8	75		75
2	Juninho	CB	Brazil	62	11	2		75		75
3	Naldo	CB	Brazil	54	6	13		73		73
4	Ânderson Lima	RB	Brazil	48	9	11		68	26	94
5	Léo Moura	RB	Brazil	52	7	7		66		66
6	Fábio Santos	LB	Brazil	61	1	4		66		66
7	Matías Rodríguez	RB	Argentina	48	9	8		65		65
8	Luisão	CB	Brazil	34	14	13	3	64		64
9	Diego Lugano	CB	Uruguay	42	4	6	9	61		61
10	Roberto Carlos	LB	Brazil	41	6	8	6	61	64	125
11	Andrés Túñez	CB	Venezuela	40	17	4		61		61
12	Juan	CB	Brazil	31	7	15	7	60	11	71
13	Victor Cardozo	CB	Brazil	53	3	3		59		59
14	Gabriel	RB	Brazil	50	7	2		59		59
15	Alex	CB	Brazil	42	2	14		58		58
16	Maxi Pereira	RB	Uruguay	43	3	8	3	57		57
17	Réver	CB	Brazil	44	3	9	1	57		57
18	Antônio Carlos	CB	Brazil	46	6	4		56		56
19	Reinaldo	LB	Brazil	45	2	8		55		55
20	Marcelo	LB	Brazil	32	7	9	6	54		54
21	Thiago Silva	CB	Brazil	32	8	6	7	53		53
22	Nicolás Sánchez	CB	Argentina	40	6	7		53		53
23	Diego Godín	CB	Uruguay	31	4	9	8	52		52
24	Chicão	CB	Brazil	43	7	2		52		52
25	Leonardo Silva	CB	Brazil	45	1	4		50		50
	Jersson González	RB	Colombia	38		2	1	41	19	60
	Lúcio	CB	Brazil	30	5	8	4	47	5	52
	Gustavo Nery	LB	Brazil	24	6	5		35	15	50

DL – domestic leagues (national and regional top tier)
DC – relevant domestic cups
ICC – international club competitions
NT – national team

Period:
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2023 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2023 (for the ranking Total Career).