According to research by the Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation, 28 players in top-level football have scored 500 or more goals in official matches over the course of their career. Goals scored in club friendlies were not counted. Only those who were active in the highest level football for all or most of their careers are considered. The ranking below takes into account goals scored in official matches played with national teams at all age levels and clubs in all divisions.^[1]

Players with most career goals

RSSSF´s ranking for official goals

Key

⁺ Unverified data is excluded from players' data; goal and match totals may be higher.
Players in bold are currently active; data is accurate as of the 11 November 2018.

Rank	Player	Goals	Matches	Ratio	Years
1	Josef Bican+	805	530	1.52	1931–1955
2	Romário	772	994	0.78	1985–2007
3	Pelé	767	831	0.92	1957–1977
4	Ferenc Puskás+	746	754	0.99	1943–1966
5	Gerd Müller	735	793	0.93	1962–1981
6	Cristiano Ronaldo	685	966	0.71	2001–present[2]
7	Lionel Messi	658	833	0.79	2003–present[3]
8	Ferenc Deák+	576	—		1940–1957
9	Uwe Seeler	575	—		1953–1978
	Túlio Maravilha	575	—		1988–2012
11	Arthur Friedenreich	557	—		1909–1935
12	Ernst Willimowski+	554	—		1934–1955
13	Eusébio	552	—		1957–1979
14	Jimmy McGrory	550	—		1922–1937
15	Franz Binder+	546	—		1930–1949
16	Fernando Peyroteo	544	—		1937–1949
17	Hugo Sánchez+	541	—		1976–1997
18	Fritz Walter+	539	—		1937–1959
19	József Takács+	523	—		1917–1934
20	Gyula Zsengellér+	522	—		1935–1953
	Zico	522	—		1971–1994
22	Alfredo Di Stéfano+	514	—		1945–1966
	Hans Krankl	514	—		1970–1989
24	Gunnar Nordahl+	513	—		1937–1958
25	Roberto Dinamite	512	—		1971–1993
	Zlatan Ibrahimović	512	883	0.58	1999–present[4]
27	Jimmy Greaves	511	—		1957–1980
28	Ferenc Bene+	508	—		1961–1978

Source: Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation^[1]

FIFA

In the course of his long and unique career, Pelé scored more than 1,200 goals, a record likely to stand for all time, and which includes more than 1,000 goals for Santos, Pele’s club from 1956 to 1974.^[5]

Guinness World Records

According to Guinness World Records the most goals scored in a specified period is 1,279, scored by Pelé, from 7 Sep 1956 to 1 Oct 1977 in 1,363 games.^[6]

Total goals

^[7]

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Arthur Friedenreich	1329
2	Pelé	1281[8]
3	Romário	1002[9]
4	Josef Bican	802
5	Gerd Müller	711
6	Ferenc Puskás	700
7	Eusébio	621
8	Cristiano Ronaldo	593
9	Ferenc Deák	576
10	Lionel Messi	571

See also

• List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals
• List of footballers with the most official appearances

References