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Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi 2022-23Getty/GOAL composite

Champions League all-time top scorers - Ronaldo, Messi & UCL goal kings

The Champions League has featured some of the best goalscorers in history. As the premier club competition in Europe and arguably the world, it is a stage that has been graced by countless icons of football.

Striking sensations such as Raul and Andriy Shevchenko dominated during the 1990s and 2000s, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have taken the art of scoring to a whole new level.

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GOAL takes a look at the all-time top scorers in the competition's history, dating back to the inaugural European Cup in 1955.

Who is the all-time Champions League top scorer?

As you can see from our table below, Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of the Champions League (including the European Cup). He is closely followed by his arch-rival, Lionel Messi.

There is a significant gulf between that pair and the rest, Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski following in third.

Karim Benzema follows in fourth, while Raul completes the top five, with the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thomas Muller and Thierry Henry among the best of the rest.

List of Champions League/European Cup all-time top 20 goalscorers

Rank

Player

Goals

Appearances

1

Cristiano Ronaldo

140

183

2

Lionel Messi

129

162

3

Robert Lewandowski

91

111

4

Karim Benzema

90

150

5

Raul

71

142

6

Ruud van Nistelrooy

56

73

7

Thomas Muller

53

139

8

Thierry Henry

50

112

9

Alfredo Di Stefano

49

58

=10

Andriy Shevchenko

48

100

=10

Zlatan Ibrahimovic

48

124

12

Eusebio

46

65

=12

Filippo Inzaghi

46

81

14

Mohamed Salah

44

79

=14

Didier Drogba

44

92

16

Neymar

43

81

17

Alessandro Del Piero

42

89

18

Sergio Aguero

41

79

19

Kylian Mbappe

40

60

20

Ferenc Puskas

36

41

21

Erling Haaland

34

25


*Correct as of games played on April 20th, 2023
**The list takes into consideration data from 1955-present
***Players in bold are still active

The composition of the all-time goalscorers list is mostly made up of players who are playing or played in the modern Champions League era (i.e. 1992 onwards) which has added more continental games to the modern day calendar. Specifically, of the 20 players in the list above, 17 of them played from the mid 1990s on.

Alfredo Di Stefano Real MadridGetty Images

However, despite that, two players who played in the pre-Champions League era (when the tournament was known as the European Cup) still figure prominently, with former Real Madrid star Alfredo Di Stefano and Benfica icon Eusebio featuring in and around the top 10.

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Ferenc Puskas , who shone for Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s, is also in the top 20. Former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Muller was in the top 20 before being edged out by Mohamed Salah. Despite being nudged out, no player comes remotely close to Gerd Muller's phenomenal goals-per-game ratio of 0.95.

Puskas boasted a goal-to-game ratio of 0.85 and Di Stefano's was 0.84, while Messi's is currently 0.8, which is undoubtedly the best in the modern era.

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