THE WORLD'S BEST GOALSCORER OF XXI CENTURY

• Jan 7, 2022
• History Statistics

Picture : Number 1 Cristiano Ronaldo

The World’s Best Goal Scorer of XXI Century at Jan 1, 2022: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo leads the category of best goal-scorers in the world top football in XXI Century at the beginning of 2022.
The Portuguese has scored 803 goals; he added 47 to his tally in 2021. 
Lionel Messi has added 43 for last year and is now at 758. 
А colossal gap (almost 200 goals) separates them from all other strikers. 
Currently 40 players in the world have scored 300+ goals in XXI century. They are marked by blue in the table and sorted by main ranking (Total Goals XXI).
7 of them have reached 300-goal mark in 2021: Bafétimbi Gomis (France), Dejan Damjanović (Montenegro), José Alfredo Castillo (Bolivia), Vágner Love (Brazil), Martin Kamburov (Bulgaria), Marcus Berg (Sweden), Sebastián Tagliabúe (UAE).
Also we put in the table other 18 players (marked by green) which are below 300 goals in XXI but have reached this amount adding the goals they scored in XX century. So, we get additional ranking (Total Goals Career). 
These 18 players have still scored a solid majority (not less than 65 percent) of their goals in XXI century (respectively, not more than 35 percent in XX) so they can be conditionally considered as the “goal-scorers of XXI century”. They are sorted in the table by Total Career ranking.
For the players who have goals in both centuries, those scored in XX are taken in brackets in the particular columns (NL, NC, ICC, NT).
The players marked in bold are currently active; others finished the career.

	THE WORLD’s BEST	GOAL SCORERS
	OF XXI CENTURY
	Player	Country	Goals				Total	Total	Total
			NL	NC	ICC	NT	XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	487	51	150	115	803		803
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	475	70	133	80	758		758
3	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	391 (+1)	46 (+2)	57	62	556	3	559
4	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	328	49	91	74	542		542
5	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	352	42	53	65	512		512
6	Ali Ashfaq	Maldives	290	95	30	57	472		472
7	Sergio Agüero	Argentina	282	40	63	41	426		426
8	Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	271	46	55	53	425		425
9	Samuel Eto'O	Cameroon	282 (+8)	27	49	51 (+5)	409	13	422
10	Aleksandar Đurić	Singapore	304 (+35)	45	33	26	408	35	443
11	Neymar	Brazil	234	40	57	70	401		401
12	Karim Benzema	France	250	36	79	36	401		401
13	David Villa	Spain	280	18	28	59	385		385
14	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	Netherlands	257	28	55	42	382		382
15	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	218	30	50	60	358		358
16	Wayne Rooney	England	231	30	43	53	357		357
17	Ricardo Oliveira	Brazil	244 (+1)	69	39	5	357	1	358
18	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	236 (+14)	52(+1)	40	28	356	15	371
19	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	263	17	39	31	350		350
20	Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	224 (+12)	36 (+2)	23 (+1)	61 (+7)	344	22	366
21	Firas Al-Khatib	Syria	185 (+5)	99	24	36	344	5	349
22	Fred	Brazil	248	39	38	18	343		343
23	Óscar Cardozo	Paraguay	244	29	52	12	337		337
24	Didier Drogba	Ivory Coast	188	33	50	65	336		336
25	Bader Al-Mutawa	Kuwait	145	71	63	56	335		335
26	Radamel Falcao	Colombia	221	20	59	35	335		335
27	Thierry Henry	France	232 (+52)	16 (+1)	42 (+17)	43 (+8)	333	78	411
28	Eran Zahavi	Israel	233	35	31	33	332		332
29	Bafétimbi Gomis	France	244	35	48	3	330		330
30	Dejan Damjanović	Montenegro	252	29	41	8	330		330
31	Robin van Persie	Netherlands	204	39	29	50	322		322
32	Carlos Tevez	Argentina	228	38	43	13	322		322
33	Nemanja Nikolić	Hungary	231	67	14	8	320		320
34	José Alfredo Castillo	Bolivia	288(+4)	4	15	6	313	4	317
35	Cristian Gonzáles	Indonesia	251	41	7	12	311		311
36	Vágner Love	Brazil	238	20	58	4	310		310
37	Mario Gómez	Germany	205	30	42	31	308		308
38	Martin Kamburov	Bulgaria	288(+1)	18(+1)	1		307	2	309
39	Marcus Berg	Sweden	210	32	39	24	305		305
40	Sebastián Tagliabúe	UAE	228	51	22	3	304		304
	Sebastián Abreu	Uruguay	227 (+85)	18 (+6)	19 (+9)	23 (+3)	287	103	390
	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Netherlands	159 (+73)	28 (+7)	62	34 (+1)	283	81	364
	Marc Lloyd Williams	Wales	236 (+83)	35(+6)			271	89	360
	Claudio Pizarro	Peru	185 (+51)	32 (+2)	41 (+9)	17 (+3)	275	65	340
	Maksim Gruznov	Estonia	199 (+105)	26(+1)	3 (+3)		228	109	337
	Dimitar Berbatov	Bulgaria	181 (+28)	29 (+5)	27 (+7)	46 (+2)	283	42	325
	Magno Alves	Brazil	201(+43)	51(+14)	15		267	57	324
	Alex	Brazil	192(+36)	32(+12)	22(+17)	5(+7)	251	72	323
	Roy Makaay	Netherlands	168 (+89)	23 (+3)	27 (+5)	6	224	97	321
	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	213 (+19)	26 (+8)	29	24	292	27	319
	Alessandro Del Piero	Italy	152 (+61)	20 (+5)	25 (+29)	13 (+14)	210	109	319
	Francesco Totti	Italy	201 (+49)	13 (+6)	30 (+8)	5 (+4)	249	67	316
	Lee Dong-gook	South Korea	196 (+18)	24 (+5)	37	25 (+8)	282	31	313
	Washington	Brazil	214 (+26)	45 (+3)	22	2	283	29	312
	Alexander Frei	Switzerland	191 (+18)	19 (+5)	30 (+2)	42	282	25	307
	Miroslav Klose	Germany	169 (+6)	25	29 (+2)	71	294	8	302
	Frank Lampard	England	173 (+19)	42 (+10)	25 (+4)	29	269	33	302
	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	206 (+16)	15	26 (+2)	36	283	18	301

All goals at top senior level are counted (top national divisions, national cups, official international tournaments, official games between national teams).
Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision).

Abbreviatures:
NL – National League
NC – National Cups
ICC – International Club Competitions
NT – National Team

Period:
from January 1, 2001 to December 31, 2021 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2021 (for the ranking Total Career).

Tiebreaking criteria in case of equal number of total goals: 1) international goals (ICC + NT), 2) goals scored for national team (NT), 3) goals scored in domestic league (NL).

Full names of Brazilian players:
Alex = Alexsandro de Souza
Fred = Frederico Chaves Guedes
Luís Fabiano = Luís Fabiano Clemente
Neymar = Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior
Washington = Washington Stecanela Cerqueira