Football/Soccer is the world’s most popular sport, with hundreds of millions of fans around the world watching every year and even more people playing the sport. While the World Cup is the most-watched football/soccer (and sporting) event overall, the UEFA Champions League is the most-watched annual sporting tournament (beating even the Super Bowl). The annual Champions League even beats the Super Bowl in worldwide viewership. The UEFA Champions League is a competition that pits Europe’s best teams against each other for continent-wide bragging rights. It is the most prestigious club tournament in the world and also highly lucrative.
It is in the Champions League where world-class players are being made and where they get recognized as such. For strikers, whose primary goal on the field is to score goals, there is likely nothing more glorious on a club level to score goals in this most prestigious competition. The following ranking thus lists the current top 10 all-time best Champions League goal scorers by the number of goals they scored in the competition.
The Top 10 All-Time Best UEFA Champions League Goal Scorers
(as of November 2, 2022)
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
2. Lionel Messi
3. Robert Lewandowski
4. Karim Benzema
5. Raul Gonzalez
6. Ruud van Nistelrooy
7. Thomas Muller
8. Thierry Henry
9. Alfredo Di Stefano
10. Andriy Shevchenko
The 10 Best UEFA Champions League Goal Scorers of All Time
(as of Novermber 2, 2022)
| Top 10 All-Time Best Champions League Goal Scorers: |
|---|
| 1. CRISTIANO RONALDO 140 goals in 183 games Goal Ratio: 0.77 |
| 2. LIONEL MESSI 129 goals in 161 games Goal Ratio: 0.8 |
| 3. ROBERT LEWANDOWSKI 91 goals in 111 games Goal Ratio: 0.82 |
| 4. KARIM BENZEMA 86 goals in 144 games Goal Ratio: 0.6 |
| 5. RAUL GONZALEZ 72 goals in 142 games Goal Ratio: 0.5 |
| 6. RUUD VAN NISTELROOY 56 goals in 73 games Goal Ratio: 0.77 |
| 7. THOMAS MULLER 53 goals in 138 games Goal Ratio: 0.38 |
| 8. THIERRY HENRY 50 goals in 112 games Goal Ratio: 0.45 |
| 9. ALFREDO DI STEFANO 49 goals in 58 games Goal Ratio: 0.84 |
| 10. ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO 48 goals in 100 games Goal Ratio: 0.48 |
| (as of November 2, 2022) |
Top 10 Champions League goalscorers of all time by the number of goals scored in the competition. Qualifying games do not count. Goals scored in the European Cup, the predecessor brand of the CL, do count.
Tiebreaker: Better/Higher goal ratio.