NEW - IFFHS RANKING FOR ALL TIME WORLD BEST LEAGUE GOAL SCORERS

• Feb 21, 2023
• History Statistics

Picture : Pelé and his famous bicycle kick ! He is the leader of this ranking.

IFFHS ranking for all-time world best league goal-scorers

Cristiano Ronaldo has reached earlier this month the milestone of 500 national league goals. He became the 6th player in football history to achieve  this. Now his league goal tally is as high as 503 goals.
We publish for the first time the historical world ranking of the top goal-scorers in the national leagues. The top divisions are taken into account, with addition of some relevant regional leagues (Campeonato Carioca for Romário, Roberto Dinamite and Zico, Campeonato Paulista for Pelé, Lisbon Championship for Peyroteo, Oberliga Nord for Seeler, Netherlands Nord for Lenstra).
Pelé holds the record in this category with 604 goals.
Erwin Helmchen is a special case. During his 28-year career, he scored 713 goals in various German leagues. During his performances, the structure of national championship was very complex and multi-stage. The regional tournaments in which Helmchen competed were the opening phases of the German championship. Formally, they belonged to the first tier of the national football. But huge number of teams involved significantly devalues the quality of his leagues. This circumstance makes it impossible to consider these regional leagues as "relevant". Therefore, Helmchen is mentioned in the list, but not included in the ranking.

		ALL-TIME BEST					LEAGUE        GOAL-SCORERS
	Player	Nationality	Period	NL	RL	Total	Leagues (goals)
	Erwin Helmchen	Germany	1923-1951	23	690	713	Germany (23), South-East Germany (151), Central Germany (247),
							Gauliga Saxony (219), Bezirk Chemnitz (72), Oberliga Nord (1)
1	Pelé	Brazil	1957-1977	138	466	604	Paulista (466), Brazil (101), USA (NASL, 37)
2	Abe Lenstra	Netherlands	1937-1960	289	284	573	Netherlands Nord (284), Netherlands (289)
3	Romário	Brazil	1985-2007	311	233	544	Carioca (233), Brazil (154), Netherlands (98), Spain (39),
							USA (USL, 19), Australia (1)
4	Josef Bican	Austria, CS, BM	1931-1955	515		515	Austria (71), Czechoslovakia & Bohemia-Moravia (444)
5	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary, Spain	1943-1966	515		515	Hungary (359), Spain (156)
6	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2002-	503		503	Portugal (3), England (103), Spain (311), Italy (81), Saudi Arabia (5)
7	Lionel Messi	Argentina	2004-	491		491	Spain (474), France (17)
8	Roberto Dinamite	Brazil	1971-1992	192	284	476	Carioca (284), Brazil (190), Spain (2)
9	Fernando Peyroteo	Portugal	1937-1949	332	132	464	Portugal (332), Lisbon (132)
10	Uwe Seeler	Germany	1954-1978	180	267	447	Oberliga Nord (267), Germany (178), Republic of Ireland (2)
11	Eusébio	Portugal	1957-1978	422		422	Mozambique (77), Portugal (320), USA (NASL, 24), Mexico (1)
12	Imre Schlosser	Hungary	1905-1928	417		417	Hungary (411), Austria (6)
13	Gyula Zsengellér	Hungary	1935-1952	416		416	Hungary (387), Italy (6), Colombia (23)
14	Jimmy McGrory	Scotland	1922-1937	409		409	Scotland (409)
15	Gerd Müller	Germany	1964-1981	405		405	Germany (365), USA (NASL, 40)
16	Zico	Brazil	1971-1994	161	239	400	Carioca (239), Brazil (135), Italy (22), Japan (14)