THE HIGHEST SCORING DEFENDER 3rd DECADE XXI CENTURY
Highest Scoring Defender of 3rd Decade XXI after 2025: James Tavernier
English right-back James Tavernier leads sovereign the ranking for world’s highest scoring defenders of the 3rd decade of XXI century as of the end of 2025.
By the middle of the decade, Tavernier had already scored 74 goals (all for Glasgow Rangers), 15 more than his pursuers.
For comparison, Sergio Ramos, the top-scoring defender of the last decade (2011-2020), notched 89 goals in that entire decade.
16 defenders have reached the mark of 30 goals.
Next to a player’s total goals, his penalty goals are indicated.
Kendall Waston (Costa Rica) and Achraf Hakimi (Morocco) have scored the most without spot kicks (38 each), while Tavernier has only 30 non-penalty goals
We have only included in the ranking the players who featured as defenders in vast majority of their games within the decade (even if they were mostly used in more advanced positions before).
| HIGHEST SCORING | 3rd | DECADE | ||||||||||||
| DEFENDERS | XXI | CENTURY | 2021 | -2025 | ||||||||||
| Player | Role | Country | DL | DC | ICC | NT | Goals | Pen. | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
| 1 | James Tavernier | RB | England | 51 | 10 | 13 | 74 | 44 | 6 | 22 | 26 | 11 | 9 | |
| 2 | Besnik Krasniqi | RB | Kosovo | 53 | 3 | 3 | 59 | 43 | 15 | 15 | 9 | 9 | 11 | |
| 3 | Benjamin Mata | CB | Cook Islands | 43 | 15 | 1 | 59 | 38 | 11 | 7 | 21 | 17 | 3 | |
| 4 | Issoufou Dayo | CB | Burkina Faso | 23 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 42 | 17 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 14 | 6 |
| 5 | Kendall Waston | CB | Costa Rica | 33 | 3 | 3 | 39 | 1 | 9 | 8 | 10 | 6 | 6 | |
| 6 | Achraf Hakimi | RB | Morocco | 22 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 38 | 0 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 11 |
| 7 | David Hancko | CB | Slovakia | 22 | 3 | 7 | 6 | 38 | 9 | 12 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 4 |
| 8 | Märten Pajunurm | CB | Estonia | 35 | 1 | 36 | 25 | 9 | 4 | 6 | 10 | 7 | ||
| 9 | Reinaldo | LB | Brazil | 29 | 1 | 5 | 35 | 20 | 4 | 8 | 3 | 6 | 14 | |
| 10 | Kevin Diks | RB | Indonesia | 20 | 1 | 10 | 2 | 33 | 18 | 12 | 2 | 12 | 7 | |
| 11 | Gabriel Mentz | CB | Malta | 24 | 8 | 1 | 33 | 16 | 3 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 7 | |
| 12 | Theo Hernández | LB | France | 26 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 32 | 4 | 7 | 6 | 4 | 5 | 10 |
| 13 | Carlos Ramírez | CB | Colombia | 28 | 3 | 1 | 32 | 22 | 4 | 13 | 11 | 4 | ||
| 14 | Gustavo Gómez | CB | Paraguay | 17 | 3 | 10 | 1 | 31 | 7 | 5 | 11 | 6 | 3 | 6 |
| 15 | Maksim Osipenko | CB | Russia | 25 | 3 | 3 | 31 | 17 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 9 | 6 | |
| 16 | Ali Maâloul | LB | Tunisia | 20 | 3 | 5 | 2 | 30 | 22 | 11 | 6 | 13 |
The ranking published here provides a breakdown of goals both by tournament (to the left of the total amount) and by year (to the right).
All top-level goals are taken into account:
DL = domestic leagues (only national and regional top tiers),
DC = relevant domestic cups
ICC = international club competitions,
NT = national team.
Tie-breakers: 1) more international goals (ICC+NT), 2) more national team goals (NT), 4) more non-penalty goals.
Period: from 1 January 2021 to 31 December 2025.