Champions League Top Scorers: Which players have scored the most Champions League goals in the history of the competition? Here, we look over the all-time UEFA Champions League top scorers.
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InShort
Cristiano Ronaldo: 140
Lionel Messi: 129
Robert Lewandowski: 94
Karim Benzema: 90
Raúl: 71
Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56
Thomas Müller: 53
Thierry Henry: 50
Kylian Mbappé: 48
Andriy Shevchenko: 48
Zlatan Ibrahimovic: 48
Filippo Inzaghi: 46
Didier Drogba: 44
Mohamed Salah: 44
Neymar: 43
Alessandro Del Piero: 42
Sergio Agüero: 41
Erling Haaland: 41
Champions League Top Scorers List
Cristiano Ronaldo: 140 Goals
Cristiano Ronaldo is the all-time leading scorer in the UEFA Champions League with 140 goals.
With the Portuguese now playing at Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr, it’s unlikely that he’ll add to this tally, which he accumulated over spells at Manchester United (21), Real Madrid (105) and Juventus (14).
Lionel Messi: 129 Goals
Lionel Messi is the second highest scorer in UEFA Champions League history with 129 goals. He does, however, hold the record of scoring the most goals for a single club in UCL history, with 120 of his 129 goals coming at Barcelona.
Messi’s record of scoring against 40 different opponents in the UEFA Champions League is a record, ahead of Ronaldo’s tally of 38. Nine of those goals came against Arsenal (7%), his favourite opponent in UCL history.
Robert Lewandowski: 94 Goals
Robert Lewandowski is edging towards the century of UEFA Champions League goals, but with the Barcelona striker still seven goals away and now 35 years of age, he may run out of time.
He tried his best in 2022-23, with five goals in five appearances for Barcelona, but their group-stage elimination sent them into the UEFA Europa League so Lewandowski had a bigger gap between UCL games than he’s used to. So far in 2023-24, he’s scored three times – versus Antwerp in Barca’s opening game of the campaign and in both legs of the last-16 tie against Napoli.
Of his 94 UCL goals, 69 came at Bayern Munich after he arrived from Borussia Dortmund.
Karim Benzema: 90 Goals
With his transfer to Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, Karim Benzema might be 90 and out.
Benzema has scored in the most UCL seasons without having failed to find the net in one, scoring in all 18 seasons of the competition since 2005-06 at Lyon.
The French striker won the Champions League top scorer award for the first time ever in 2021-22, with his 15 goals helping Real Madrid to the title, although he failed to score in the final win over Liverpool in Paris.
His 78 goals for Real Madrid in the competition are only behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s 105.
Raúl: 71 Goals
Former Spanish international Raúl is Real Madrid’s third highest scoring player in UEFA Champions League history (66), while his overall tally of 71 is the fifth most of all players in the competition.
Ruud van Nistelrooy: 56 Goals
Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy scored 56 goals overall in the UEFA Champions League, but that tally could have been more had he played more UCL action earlier in his career. He made just 11 appearances at PSV before his 25th birthday and debut for Manchester United in the competition.
No player reached 50 UEFA Champions League goals quicker than Van Nistelrooy (62 appearances) but he was 31 years old when he broke that mark.
Thomas Müller: 53 Goals
Thomas Müller just played his 15th Champions League season as a Bayern Munich player, scoring in 14 of these (only failing in 2018-19).
Since his competition debut in 2008-09, he’s scored 53 goals and has 23 assists. His goal tally is more than double that of any other German player in the competition: Mario Gomez (26).
He’s won the Champions League on two occasions with Bayern Munich, in both 2012-13 and 2019-20.
Thierry Henry: 50 Goals
Thierry Henry scored 50 goals in the UEFA Champions League across three clubs: Arsenal (35), Barcelona (eight) and Monaco (seven).
