Top ten highest goalscorers of all time: Cristiano Ronaldo breaks Josef Bican’s record with ex-Man United star above World Cup winner Lionel Messi and other legends with most goals recognised by FIFA

Marc Williams11th February 2023, 12:24 pm

Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are nearing 40 and still scoring for fun, but has the GOAT debate finally been settled?

Former Manchester United star Ronaldo continued his remarkable scoring run at the World Cup with Portugal, but so has Messi, who scored two goals in the final en route to winning the tournament.

8Ronaldo and Messi both scored for Portugal and Argentina respectively at the 2022 World Cup

Despite the Argentine’s World Cup heroics, he is still some way off becoming the top scoring international player.

Meanwhile, Ronaldo has moved up the all-time scoring charts in recent years which has seen him overtake Austria-Czech icon Josef Bican.

No one has scored more goals recognised by FIFA than the Portugal captain, who has inked his name at the top of history’s scoring charts.

Messi has surpassed legendary trio Romario, Ferenc Puskas and Pele to move to third in the all-time chart, but Ronaldo still remains at the very top.

So, who else makes the list of the top ten highest goalscorers of all time?

8Josef Bican was the leading goalscorer of all-time until Ronaldo broke his record earlier this year

10. Tulio Maravilha

575 goals (total games unknown) – 1988-2019

A Brazilian journeyman who certainly had the eye for goal.

Only recently retired, Tulio played for nearly 40 clubs in his career.

9, Uwe Seeler

575+ goals (total games unknown) – 1953-1978

The German great was prolific for Hamburger but struggled to turn his goals into silverware.

He scored twice in his one and only appearance for Ireland’s Cork Celtic in 1978.

Seeler played for his country in four World Cups and famously captained West Germany in the 1966 final defeat to England.

AFP8Seeler in action against Switzerland in the 1962 World Cup

8. Ferenc Deak

576+ goals (total games unknown) – 1940-1957

One of Hungary’s best during their heyday and a legend in his home country if not as much elsewhere in the world.

Incredibly, Deak averaged over three goals per game during his career at Szentlorinci AC.

7. Gerd Muller

734 goals in 793 games – 1962-1981

The striker’s most important goal of the 68 he banged in for West Germany was the winner in the 1974 World Cup final against Netherlands in Munich.

During a historic 15 years at Bayern, Muller netted a record 365 goals in 427 Bundesliga games and 66 goals in 74 European matches.

His record of 40 goals scored in a single Bundesliga season stood for 49 years, and was only just broken by Robert Lewandowski in May 2021.

AFP/GETTY IMAGES8‘Der Bomber’ was a World Cup and European Championship winner with West Germany

6. Ferenc Puskas

746+ goals in 754+ games – 1943-1966

Another Hungarian icon, Puskas now lends his name to the award for the most beautiful goal of each year.

He made his name in Budapest before cementing his legend at Real Madrid.

Two of Puskas’ most famous goals came in Hungary’s infamous 6-3 win over England, with the 1953 match at Wembley later being coined the ‘Match of the Century’.

GETTY IMAGES – GETTY8Puskas celebrates his first goal in the Match of the Century

5. Pele

757 goals in 831 games – 1957-1977

One of the greatest ever and a three-time World Cup winner.

Pele scored nearly a goal-per-game during his 656 competitive games for Santos, though claims to have scored more than 1,000 times in his career.

However, it is widely accepted hundreds of those goals came during tour or friendly matches. Pele would have told you otherwise!

GETTY8Pele made his debut for Brazil when he was just 16, winning his first World Cup at 17

4. Romario

772 goals 994 games – 1985-2007

Romario lead Brazil to World Cup glory in 1994, scoring five goals in the tournament.

He enjoyed a stellar career at a number of top clubs around the world.

3. Lionel Messi

796 goals in 1010 games – 2003-present

A true legend, Messi has won countless awards to go along with his goals at Barcelona, including seven Ballon d’Or awards.

Now with PSG, the Argentine has a few years left to add to his remarkable tally.

Messi scored seven times at the World Cup in Qatar, with two in the dramatic penalty shootout win over France surely proving to be his most special in his entire career.

GETTY8Messi famously scored a record 91 goals in the calendar year 2012 and is still banging them in at 35

2. Josef Bican

805+ goals in 530+ games – 1931-1956

Scoring 395 in 217 games for Slavia Prague, Bican had claimed the honour of being football’s leading goalscorer of all-time for over 60 years.

But he has now finally been trumped.

Although it is said he scored close to 1,500 goals in total during his playing days, only 805 of those were recognised by FIFA.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo

824 goals in 1,149 games – 2001-present

A modern great for Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

Ronaldo has won everything in the game and is still going strong today, and has now added the biggest record yet to his historic career by overtaking Bican.

Ronaldo’s goal record continued to grow after his strike against Ghana at the 2022 World Cup.

This goal made him the only player to score at five separate World Cups – and he is not done yet with talk of retirement premature according to the man himself.

In fact, Ronaldo has broken more boundaries, securing the most expensive contract in sports’ history by penning a £178million-a-year deal with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr until 2025.

And after scoring four goals in only his fourth game for Al Nassr, he reached the incredible milestone of 500 career league goals.