MEN'S WORLD BEST GOAL SCORER OF XXI CENTURY

• Feb 4, 2023
• History Statistics

The World’s Best Goal Scorer of XXI Century after 2022: Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo leads the category of best goal-scorers in the world top football in XXI Century at the beginning of 2023.
The Portuguese has scored 819 goals at the end of past year; he added 16 to his tally in 2022. 
Lionel Messi runs the second with 793. 
Currently 53 players in the world have scored 300+ goals in XXI century (highlighted orange in the table); they are sorted by main ranking (Total Goals XXI).
Several other players (marked grey) are below 300 goals in XXI but reached this amount adding the goals from XX century having still scored a significant majority (not less than 65 percent) of their goals in XXI century (so they can be conditionally categorized as the “goal-scorers of XXI century”). They are also listed in the table but not ranked. 
The players in bold are currently active; others finished the career.

	THE WORLD's BEST	GOAL SCORERS
	IN XXI CENTURY
	Player	Nationality	NL	NC	ICC	NT	Total	Total	Total
			XXI	XXI	XXI	XXI	XXI	XX	Career
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	498	51	152	118	819		819
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	487	71	137	98	793		793
3	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	357	49	100	78	584		584
4	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	392	46	57	62	557	3	560
5	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	364	43	53	68	528		528
6	Ali Ashfaq	Maldives	288	98	30	57	473		473
7	Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	276	46	55	58	435		435
8	Karim Benzema	France	269	37	91	37	434		434
9	Neymar	Brazil	255	42	59	77	433		433
10	Sergio Agüero	Argentina	282	40	63	41	426		426
11	Aleksandar Đurić	Singapore	304	57	37	27	425	36	461
12	Samuel Eto'O	Cameroon	282	27	49	51	409	13	422
13	Edin Džeko	Bosnia and Herzegovina	239	31	53	64	387		387
14	David Villa	Spain	280	18	28	59	385		385
15	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	Netherlands	257	28	55	42	382		382
16	Gonzalo Higuaín	Argentina	279	17	39	31	366		366
17	Wayne Rooney	England	231	31	45	53	360		360
18	Ricardo Oliveira	Brazil	244	69	39	5	357	1	358
19	Luís Fabiano	Brazil	236	52	40	28	356	15	371
20	Eran Zahavi	Israel	247	38	37	33	355		355
21	Bader Al-Mutawa	Kuwait	157	83	58	55	353		353
22	Óscar Cardozo	Paraguay	257	29	53	12	351		351
23	Firas Al-Khatib	Syria	186	101	27	36	350	5	355
24	Bafétimbi Gomis	France	260	37	48	3	348		348
25	Dejan Damjanović	Montenegro	256	38	43	8	345		345
26	Fred	Brazil	249	40	38	18	345		345
27	Robbie Keane	Republic of Ireland	224	36	23	61	344	22	366
28	Álvaro Saborío	Costa Rica	279	5	24	36	344		344
29	Nicolás Muñoz	Panama	325		16	1	342		342
30	Radamel Falcao	Colombia	224	20	59	36	339		339
31	Didier Drogba	Ivory Coast	188	33	50	65	336		336
32	Romelu Lukaku	Belgium	202	24	42	68	336		336
33	Thierry Henry	France	233	15	42	43	333	78	411
34	Nemanja Nikolić	Hungary	238	67	14	8	327		327
35	Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang	Gabon	219	31	44	30	324		324
36	Robin van Persie	Netherlands	204	39	29	50	322		322
37	Carlos Tevez	Argentina	225	41	43	13	322		322
38	Vágner Love	Brazil	239	20	58	4	321		321
39	Rhys Griffiths	Wales	272	44	4		320		320
40	Marcus Berg	Sweden	223	33	39	24	319		319
41	Sebastián Tagliabúe	UAE	233	59	22	4	318		318
42	Harry Kane	England	196	23	45	53	317		317
43	Cristian Gonzáles	Indonesia	250	48	7	12	317		317
44	Sunil Chhetri	India	167	45	20	84	316		316
45	José Alfredo Castillo	Bolivia	289	4	15	6	314	4	318
46	André-Pierre Gignac	France	260	18	28	7	313		313
47	Ali Mabkhout	UAE	193	21	17	81	312		312
48	Luis Tejada	Panama	242	11	15	43	311	11	322
49	Mario Gómez	Germany	205	30	42	31	308		308
50	Hulk	Brazil	199	32	65	11	307		307
51	Sebastián Soria	Qatar	214	38	15	39	306		306
52	Martin Kamburov	Bulgaria	287	18	1		306	2	308
53	Dayro Moreno	Colombia	265	21	15	3	304		304
	Sebastián Abreu	Uruguay	227	18	19	23	287	103	390
	Marc Lloyd Williams	Wales	236	39			275	90	365
	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Netherlands	159	28	62	34	283	81	364
	Claudio Pizarro	Peru	185	32	41	17	275	65	340
	Maksim Gruznov	Estonia	199	26	3		228	109	337
	Dimitar Berbatov	Bulgaria	181	29	27	46	283	42	325
	Magno Alves	Brazil	201	51	15		267	57	324
	Alex	Brazil	192	32	22	5	251	72	323
	Roy Makaay	Netherlands	168	23	27	6	224	97	321
	Dirk Kuyt	Netherlands	213	26	29	24	292	27	319
	Alessandro Del Piero	Italy	152	20	25	13	210	109	319
	Francesco Totti	Italy	201	13	30	5	249	67	316
	Lee Dong-gook	South Korea	196	24	37	25	282	31	313
	Washington	Brazil	214	45	22	2	283	29	312
	Williams Reyes	El Salvador	277		14		291	17	308
	Alexander Frei	Switzerland	191	19	30	42	282	25	307
	Miroslav Klose	Germany	169	25	29	71	294	8	302
	Frank Lampard	England	173	42	25	29	269	33	302
	Diego Forlán	Uruguay	206	15	26	36	283	18	301

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).

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, 2022 (for the ranking Total XXI);
from career start to December 31, 2022 (for the ranking Total Career).

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