2023 - THE PROLIFIC YEAR FOR DEFENDERS
Picture : Benjamin Mata scored more than 20 goals in 2023 !
2023, the most prolific year for defenders!
The year 2023 became the first year in football history with as many as 3 defenders to score 20+ top-level goals: JamesTavernier (26), Benjamin Mata (21) and Ladislav Krejčí (20).
Only once before, in 1976, more than one defender reached that mark (Daniel Passarella 27, Nelinho 20).
The cases of maximum scoring performance of defenders in a calendar year are summarized in this ranking.
The record is still held by Daniel Passarella: just mentioned 27 goals in 1976. So, James Tavernier lacked only 1 goal to equal Passarella’s annual record.
(Here we should mention that Fernando Hierro also once scored 27 goals in a calendar year, but this happened in 1992 when he was often used as a midfielder. Therefore, the Hierro achievement cannot be counted in this category).
Tavernier reached 20-goal annual mark for the 2nd time in his career and for the 2nd time in a row (2022, 2023) – just like Edgardo Bauza in 1980 and 1981.
Only Ronald Koeman achieved 20 annual goals more often (3 times), but unlike Bauza and Tavernier, he did not manage to do it twice in a row.
| ALL-TIME | HIGHEST | SCORING | ||||||||
| DEFENDERS | IN | A | CALENDAR | YEAR | ||||||
| Player | Role | Year | Country | Club(s) | NL | NC | ICC | NT | Goals | |
| 1 | Daniel Passarella | CB | 1976 | Argentina | River Plate | 24 | 1 | 2 | 27 | |
| 2 | Ronald Koeman | CB | 1987 | Netherlands | PSV | 21 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 26 |
| 3 | James Tavernier | RB | 2023 | England | Rangers | 20 | 3 | 3 | 26 | |
| 4 | Gabriel | RB | 2005 | Brazil | Fluminense | 20 | 3 | 1 | 24 | |
| 5 | Edgardo Bauza | CB | 1980 | Argentina | Rosario Central | 23 | 23 | |||
| 6 | James Tavernier | RB | 2022 | England | Rangers | 11 | 2 | 9 | 22 | |
| 7 | Ronald Koeman | CB | 1989 | Netherlands | PSV, Barcelona | 16 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 22 |
| 8 | Ronald Koeman | CB | 1994 | Netherlands | Barcelona | 14 | 5 | 2 | 21 | |
| 9 | Edgardo Bauza | CB | 1981 | Argentina | Rosario Central | 20 | 1 | 21 | ||
| 10 | Benjamin Mata | CB | 2023 | Cook Islands | Wellington Olympic | 14 | 6 | 1 | 21 | |
| 11 | Nelinho | RB | 1976 | Brazil | Cruzeiro | 12 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 20 |
| 12 | Ladislav Krejčí | CB | 2023 | Czechia | Sparta Prague | 15 | 3 | 2 | 20 |
A player was taken into account only if he featured as defender in vast majority of his games inside the year in consideration (regardless his positions in other years).
Tie-breakers: 1) more international goals (ICC + NT), 2) more national team goals (NT), 3) more national league goals (NL).