THE TOP 100
Picture : Luis Suarez is already at rank 4 behind his Miami teammate Lionel Messi, second.
IFFHS ranking for World’s best national goal-scorers of XXI century after 2023
The series of publications on continental rankings for best national goal-scorers of XXI century after 2023 is now summarized by a global ranking of this category.
Cristiano Ronaldo led it at the end of last year with 532 goals.
100 players worldwide have scored 200+ goals in XXI century; active players are taken in bold.
Only goals in top national and regional leagues were taken into account.
| BEST NATIONAL SCORERS | WORLD | ||||
| IN XXI CENTURY | 2001-2023 | ||||
| Player | Nationality | Goals | |||
| XXI | XX | Career | |||
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 532 | 532 | |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 497 | 497 | |
| 3 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | Sweden | 393 | 1 | 394 |
| 4 | Luis Suárez | Uruguay | 388 | 388 | |
| 5 | Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 375 | 375 | |
| 6 | Nicolás Muñoz | Panama | 325 | 325 | |
| 7 | Fred | Brazil | 307 | 307 | |
| 8 | Aleksandar Đurić | Singapore | 304 | 31 | 335 |
| 9 | Ali Ashfaq | Maldives | 293 | 293 | |
| 10 | Karim Benzema | France | 290 | 290 | |
| 11 | José Alfredo Castillo | Bolivia | 289 | 4 | 293 |
| 12 | Martin Kamburov | Bulgaria | 287 | 1 | 288 |
| 13 | Dayro Moreno | Colombia | 285 | 285 | |
| 14 | Samuel Eto'O | Cameroon | 282 | 8 | 290 |
| Sergio Agüero | Argentina | 282 | 282 | ||
| 16 | Álvaro Saborío | Costa Rica | 281 | 281 | |
| 17 | David Villa | Spain | 280 | 280 | |
| André-Pierre Gignac | France | 280 | 280 | ||
| 19 | Gonzalo Higuaín | Argentina | 279 | 279 | |
| 20 | Óscar Cardozo | Paraguay | 278 | 278 | |
| 21 | Williams Reyes | El Salvador | 277 | 17 | 294 |
| Carlos Saucedo | Bolivia | 277 | 277 | ||
| 23 | Edinson Cavani | Uruguay | 276 | 276 | |
| 24 | Rhys Griffiths | Wales | 272 | 272 | |
| 25 | Eran Zahavi | Israel | 269 | 269 | |
| 26 | Dejan Damjanović | Montenegro | 268 | 268 | |
| 27 | Bafétimbi Gomis | France | 262 | 262 | |
| Hernán Barcos | Argentina | 262 | 262 | ||
| 29 | Ricardo Oliveira | Brazil | 260 | 1 | 261 |
| 30 | Klaas-Jan Huntelaar | Netherlands | 257 | 257 | |
| Neymar | Brazil | 257 | 257 | ||
| 32 | Edin Džeko | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 254 | 254 | |
| 33 | Pablo Escobar | Bolivia | 251 | 1 | 252 |
| 34 | Cristian Gonzáles | Indonesia | 250 | 250 | |
| 35 | Vágner Love | Brazil | 244 | 244 | |
| Magno Alves | Brazil | 244 | 43 | 287 | |
| 37 | Esteban Paredes | Chile | 243 | 243 | |
| 38 | Luis Tejada | Panama | 242 | 11 | 253 |
| 39 | Sebastián Tagliabúe | UAE | 241 | 241 | |
| 40 | Nemanja Nikolić | Hungary | 239 | 239 | |
| 41 | Sebastián Abreu | Uruguay | 238 | 85 | 323 |
| 42 | Víctor Núñez | Costa Rica | 237 | 11 | 248 |
| Hulk | Brazil | 237 | 237 | ||
| 44 | Marc Lloyd Williams | Wales | 236 | 83 | 319 |
| Klæmint Olsen | Faroe Islands | 236 | 236 | ||
| Burak Yılmaz | Turkey | 236 | 236 | ||
| Alex | Brazil | 236 | 57 | 293 | |
| 48 | Luís Fabiano | Brazil | 235 | 14 | 249 |
| 49 | Harry Kane | England | 234 | 234 | |
| 50 | Michael Wilde | England | 233 | 233 | |
| 51 | Thierry Henry | France | 232 | 53 | 285 |
| Germán Cano | Argentina | 232 | 232 | ||
| 53 | Wayne Rooney | England | 231 | 231 | |
| 54 | Marcus Berg | Sweden | 230 | 230 | |
| Kris Boyd | Scotland | 230 | 230 | ||
| Chris Venables | England | 230 | 230 | ||
| 57 | Abderrazak Hamdallah | Morocco | 229 | 229 | |
| 58 | William Ferreira | Uruguay | 228 | 228 | |
| 59 | Radamel Falcao | Colombia | 225 | 225 | |
| Carlos Tevez | Argentina | 225 | 225 | ||
| 61 | Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang | Gabon | 224 | 224 | |
| Omar Al Somah | Syria | 224 | 224 | ||
| Robbie Keane | Republic of Ireland | 224 | 12 | 236 | |
| Washington | Brazil | 224 | 53 | 277 | |
| 65 | Bas Dost | Netherlands | 220 | 220 | |
| José Sand | Argentina | 220 | 1 | 221 | |
| 67 | Romelu Lukaku | Belgium | 219 | 219 | |
| 68 | Ranti Martins | Nigeria | 218 | 218 | |
| 69 | Rodrigo Tabata | Qatar | 218 | 218 | |
| Rudel Calero | Nicaragua | 218 | 218 | ||
| 71 | Hamdi Salihi | Albania | 217 | 217 | |
| 72 | Sebastián Soria | Qatar | 216 | 216 | |
| Humberto Suazo | Chile | 216 | 216 | ||
| 74 | Youssef El-Arabi | Morocco | 215 | 215 | |
| Ali Mabkhout | UAE | 215 | 215 | ||
| Carlos Kamiani Félix | Mexico | 215 | 215 | ||
| Diego Forlán | Uruguay | 215 | 16 | 231 | |
| Santiago Salcedo | Paraguay | 215 | 215 | ||
| 79 | Dirk Kuyt | Netherlands | 213 | 19 | 232 |
| 80 | Israel Silva | Brazil | 212 | 212 | |
| 81 | Jonas | Brazil | 211 | 211 | |
| 82 | Grafite | Brazil | 210 | 210 | |
| 83 | Antonio Di Natale | Italy | 209 | 209 | |
| Lee Hunt | England | 209 | 209 | ||
| Araújo | Brazil | 209 | 38 | 247 | |
| 86 | Andrew Waterworth | Northern Ireland | 207 | 207 | |
| Jerry Bengtson | Honduras | 207 | 207 | ||
| 88 | Mohamed Salah | Egypt | 206 | 206 | |
| Vjatšeslav Zahovaiko | Estonia | 206 | 6 | 212 | |
| 90 | Mario Gómez | Germany | 205 | 205 | |
| 91 | Robin van Persie | Netherlands | 204 | 204 | |
| David Lafata | Czech Republic | 204 | 204 | ||
| Lisandro López | Argentina | 204 | 204 | ||
| Diego Souza | Brazil | 204 | 204 | ||
| 95 | Ciro Immobile | Italy | 203 | 203 | |
| Tarmo Neemelo | Estonia | 203 | 1 | 204 | |
| Kléber Pereira | Brazil | 203 | 64 | 267 | |
| 98 | Francesco Totti | Italy | 201 | 49 | 250 |
| 99 | Daniel Huss | Luxembourg | 200 | 28 | 228 |
| Jason Byrne | Republic of Ireland | 200 | 17 | 217 |
Period:
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2023 (for the ranking Goals XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2023 (for the ranking Goals Career)