THE BEST DEFENDER GOALSCORER
Highest Scoring Defender of 3rd Decade XXI after 2024: James Tavernier
James Tavernier is a sovereign leader of the ranking for highest scoring defenders in the world football of the 3rd decade of XXI century after 2024. The English right-back from Glasgow Rangers has scored 65 goals over the decade’s first 4 years.
As of the end of 2024, 17 defenders have scored 25+ goals.
Next to a player’s total goals, his penalty goals are indicated. All three leaders have benefitted much by such way to score.
Kendall Waston (Costa Rica), 8th in the ranking, has scored the most without penalties (32).
We have only included in the ranking the players who featured as defenders in vast majority of their games inside the decade (even if they were mostly used as midfielders before).
| HIGHEST SCORING | 3rd | DECADE | |||||||||||
| DEFENDERS | XXI | CENTURY | 2021 | -2024 | |||||||||
| Player | Role | Country | DL | DC | ICC | NT | Goals | Pen. | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
| 1 | James Tavernier | RB | England | 45 | 8 | 12 | 65 | 39 | 6 | 22 | 26 | 11 | |
| 2 | Benjamin Mata | CB | Cook Islands | 41 | 14 | 1 | 56 | 37 | 11 | 7 | 21 | 17 | |
| 3 | Besnik Krasniqi | RB | Kosovo | 44 | 3 | 1 | 48 | 35 | 15 | 15 | 9 | 9 | |
| 4 | Höskuldur Gunnlaugsson | RB | Iceland | 26 | 9 | 7 | 42 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 15 | 12 | |
| 5 | Issoufou Dayo | CB | Burkina Faso | 20 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 36 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 14 |
| 6 | Ramin Rezaeian | RB | Iran | 23 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 36 | 7 | 7 | 4 | 14 | 11 |
| 7 | David Hancko | CB | Slovakia | 21 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 34 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 10 |
| 8 | Kendall Waston | CB | Costa Rica | 27 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 6 | |
| 9 | Carlos Ramírez | CB | Colombia | 28 | 3 | 1 | 32 | 22 | 4 | 13 | 11 | 4 | |
| 10 | Ali Maâloul | LB | Tunisia | 20 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 30 | 22 | 11 | 6 | 13 | |
| 11 | Märten Pajunurm | CB | Estonia | 28 | 1 | 29 | 19 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 10 | ||
| 12 | Achraf Hakimi | RB | Morocco | 18 | 2 | 7 | 27 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | |
| 13 | Kevin Diks | RB | Indonesia | 16 | 1 | 9 | 26 | 11 | 12 | 2 | 12 | ||
| 14 | Alexander Scholz | CB | Denmark | 19 | 2 | 5 | 26 | 23 | 5 | 8 | 11 | 1 | |
| 15 | Gabriel Mentz | CB | Malta | 19 | 6 | 1 | 26 | 12 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 13 | |
| 16 | Gustavo Gómez | CB | Paraguay | 14 | 2 | 8 | 1 | 25 | 6 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 3 |
| 17 | Maksim Osipenko | CB | Russia | 20 | 2 | 3 | 25 | 14 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 9 |
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 tiers),
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), 4) more open-play goals.
Period: from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2024.