The UEFA Champions League is considered the world’s preeminent club tournament, and players can become legends with great performances in Europe’s top competition.
Since scoring goals is considered the most glamorous skill in football, those who find the back of the net consistently can earn legendary status in the game.
Today, talents like Erling Haaland the Kylian Mbappe look like they have what it takes to match the exploits of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, who have left their indelible mark on Europe’s elite tournament.
The Sporting News brings you the top names and numbers for the goalscoring legends of all-time in European play. The lists below combine goalscoring from both iterations of UEFA’s top competition: the European Cup (beginning in 1955) and the Champions League (since 1992/93).
MORE: Updated goalscoring leaders for 2022/23 Champions League season
Cristiano Ronaldo holds the two greatest seasons in European club football history.
His record from the 2013/14 season still stands after nearly a decade, scoring 17 goals across 11 matches and 993 minutes as Real Madrid won the title during that campaign. Ronaldo scored in every single match he appeared in except one, going 73 goal-less minutes in the first leg of their semifinal match against Bayern. He started the Champions League with a hat-trick against Galatasaray to open group stage play, and added braces against FC Copenhagen, Juventus, Schalke (twice), and Bayern Munich.
He would nearly repeat that incredible feat just two seasons later, bagging 16 goals as Madrid yet again won the title in 2015/16. He scored hat-tricks against Shakhtar Donetsk and Wolfsburg, plus a four-goal stunner against Malmo in the group stage. That year, Ronaldo would manage ‘just’ five goals in the knockout stage, doing most of the work early on in a soft group stage. He was held off the scoresheet in the semifinals and final, but Madrid hoisted the trophy anyway.
Lionel Messi’s best season ranks him sixth, bagging 14 goals in the 2011/12 season as Barcelona reached the semifinals before falling to Chelsea. Others on the list from football’s earlier days include goal hawk Jose Altafini, German great Gerd ‘Der Bomber’ Muller, and Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas, for whom FIFA’s Goal of the Season award is named.
The most goals by a player for an English club in a single season of the tournament is Ruud van Nistelrooy who scored 12 for Manchester United in 2002/03. Erling Haaland has matched that mark this season with 12 of his own for Man City, needing one more in the final to surpass that mark.
| Rank | Player | Club | Season | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 2013/14 | 17 |
| 2. | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 2015/16 | 16 |
| 3. | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | 2019/20 | 15 |
| Karim Benzema | Real Madrid | 2021/22 | 15 | |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 2017/18 | 15 | |
| 6. | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 2011/12 | 14 |
| Jose Altafini | AC Milan | 1962/63 | 14 | |
| 8. | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern Munich | 2021/22 | 13 |
| 9. | Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 2018/19 | 12 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 2016/17 | 12 | |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid | 2012/13 | 12 | |
| Mario Gomez | Bayern Munich | 2011/12 | 12 | |
| Lionel Messi | Barcelona | 2010/11 | 12 | |
| Ruud van Nistelrooy | Man United | 2002/03 | 12 | |
| Gerd Muller | Bayern Munich | 1972/73 | 12 | |
| Ferenc Puskas | Real Madrid | 1959/60 | 12 | |
| Erling Haaland | Man City | 2022/23 | 12 |
With consistent goalscoring numbers in European play season after season, it’s no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are atop the Champions League career goalscoring charts.
A wide gap exists below those two all-time greats and the duo chasing them: Robert Lewandowski (3rd) and Karim Benzema (4th).
The top non-active player is Raul with 71 goals, with Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy 15 goals behind him.
Champions League career goals as of April 11, 2023, only counts goals scored in group or knockout stages, excluding qualifying.
| Rank | Player | Clubs | Goals |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cristiano Ronaldo* | Man United, Real Madrid, Juventus | 140 |
| 2. | Lionel Messi* | Barcelona, PSG | 129 |
| 3. | Robert Lewandowski* | Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona |
94 |
| 4. | Karim Benzema* | Olympique Lyon, Real Madrid | 90 |
| 5. | Raul | Real Madrid, Schalke | 71 |
| 6. | Ruud van Nistelrooy | PSV Eindhoven, Man United, Real Madrid |
56 |
| 7. | Thomas Muller* | Bayern Munich | 54 |
| 8. | Thierry Henry | AS Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona | 50 |
| 9. | Alfredo Di Stefano | Real Madrid | 49 |
| 10 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, AC Milan, Barcelona, PSG |
48 |
| Andriy Shevchenko | Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Chelsea | 48 | |
| Kylian Mbappe* | AS Monaco, PSG | 48 |
* Active players
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are both tied atop the Champions League hat-trick list, with twice as many as anyone else in the history of the competition save Robert Lewandowski, who’s just two behind.
Only four players in history have more than three hat-tricks in UEFA’s top competition, which makes the eight that Ronaldo and Messi each own that much more incredible.
Champions League hat-tricks as of April 16, 2024
| Rank | Player | Clubs | Hat-tricks |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Cristiano Ronaldo* | Man United, Real Madrid, Juventus | 8 |
| Lionel Messi* | Barcelona, PSG | 8 | |
| 3. | Robert Lewandowski* | Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona | 6 |
| 4. | Karim Benzema* | Olympique Lyon, Real Madrid | 4 |
| 5. | Mario Gomez | Stuttgart, Bayern Munich | 3 |
| Neymar* | Barcelona, PSG | 3 | |
| Filippo Inzaghi | Juventus, AC Milan | 3 | |
| Luiz Adriano* | Shakhtar Donetsk, AC Milan | 3 |
* Active player
Nobody has ever scored more than five goals in a single Champions League or European Cup match, which has surprisingly been done 15 times in history, including five times in the Champions League era.
It’s only happened four times since the turn of the millennium, with Erling Haaland the latest to achieve the feat in 2023.
The only club to concede five Champions League goals by a single player twice is Cypriot side Omonia, which saw it happen both times in the 1970’s.
| Season | Player | Stage | Club | Opponent |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022/23 | Erling Haaland | Round of 16 | Manchester City | RB Leipzig |
| 2014/15 | Luiz Adriano | Group Stage | Shakhtar Donetsk | BATE Borisov |
| 2014/15 | David Lafata | 2nd Qualifying Round | Sparta Prague | Levadia Tallinn |
| 2011/12 | Lionel Messi | Round of 16 | Barcelona | Bayer Leverkusen |
| 1999/00 | Mihails Miholaps | 1st Qualifying Round | Skonto Riga | Jeunesse Esch |
| 1979/80 | Soren Lerby | 2nd Round | Ajax | Omonia |
| 1978/79 | Claudio Sulser | 1st Round | Grasshoppers | Valletta |
| 1972/73 | Gerd Muller | 2nd Round | Bayern Munich | Omonia |
| 1966/67 | Paul van Himst | 1st Round | Anderlecht | Haka |
| 1965/66 | Florian Albert | Preliminary Round | Ferencvaros | Keflavik |
| 1964/65 | Nikola Kotov | Preliminary Round | Lokomotiv Sofia | Malmo FF |
| 1962/63 | Ray Crawford | Preliminary Round | Ipswich Town | Floriana |
| 1962/63 | Jose Altafini | Preliminary Round | AC Milan | Union Luxembourg |
| 1961/62 | Bent Lofqvist | Preliminary Round | Boldklubben 1993 | Spora |
| 1959/60 | Ove Olsson | Preliminary Round | Gothenburg | Linfield |
Hat-tricks have been a coveted milestone for any goalscorer across European competition, but records have been shattered in the past few seasons.
In the 2021/22 competition, Robert Lewandowski scored a hat-trick against RB Salzburg in the second leg of their Round of 16 matchup just 23 minutes from the opening whistle, which still sits as the fastest hat-trick in the competition’s history.
However, the following year, Mohamed Salah carved out a piece of his own history. Coming off the bench in the 68th minute of Liverpool’s group stage match against Rangers at Ibrox, Salah scored a hat-trick in under seven minutes from the first goal to the third goal, marking the quickest hat-trick in Champions League history between goals scored.
MORE: Full review of fastest hat-tricks in Champions League history
Teenage superstars are becoming more and more prominent in Europe’s top competition, as coaches embrace the idea that those who are good enough are old enough.
No top club has embraced that notion more than Barcelona, who have brought several young talents through the ranks of their world-famous La Masia academy to the senior team.
The youngest-ever Champions League goal scorer from the group stage on is Ansu Fati, who in 2019 bagged his first-ever goal in Europe against Inter at the San Siro while just 17 years 40 days old. That goal made Fati the first-ever 16-year-old goal scorer in the Champions League, breaking a record that had been held since before Fati was born. Peter Ofori-Quaye’s goal for Olympiakos in the 1997 group stage gave him the record at the time, and stood for over 22 years.
However, one age-old record that remains intact is that of Wlodzimierz Lubanski who holds the mark for youngest-ever goal scorer in the history of the European Cup across any stage and any iteration of the competition. According to Transfermarkt, his goal in 1963 for Polish club Gornik Zabarze against Czech side FK Dukla Prague in the Round of 16 gave him a record that still stands today — 16 years, 263 days old at the time his goal was scored.
Barcelona also benefitted from the youngest-ever player to assist a Champions League goal, as Lamine Yamal assisted a Ferran Torres goal against Royal Antwerp in a group stage match, before his assist to Raphinha against PSG months later in the quarterfinal made him the youngest-ever assister in a knockout stage match.
The Catalan giants were also the beneficiaries when Bojan Krkic became the youngest-ever goal scorer in a Champions League knockout stage, putting Barca up 1-0 on Schalke in the first leg of their 2008 quarterfinal matchup. In fact, it was Krkic’s assist record that Yamal broke with his assist against Royal Antwerp as well.
Only counting group stage onwards in modern iteration of UEFA Champions League (since 1993).
| Player | Club | Date | Age |
| Ansu Fati | Barcelona | Dec. 10, 2019 at Inter | 16 years, 283 days |
| George Ilenikhena | Royal Antwerp | Dec. 13, 2023 vs. Barcelona | 17 years, 119 days |
| Antonio Nusa | Club Brugge | Sep. 13, 2022 vs. Porto | 17 years, 149 days |
| Peter Ofori-Quaye | Olympiakos | Oct. 1, 1997 vs. Rosenborg | 17 years, 194 days |
| Mateo Kovacic | Dinamo Zagreb | Dec. 1, 2011 vs. Lyon | 17 years, 215 days |
Only counting group stage onwards in modern iteration of UEFA Champions League (since 1993).
| Player | Club | Date | Age |
| Lamine Yamal | Barcelona | Apr. 16, 2024 vs PSG | 16 years, 283 days |
| Bojan Krkic | Barcelona | Nov. 27, 2007 at Lyon | 17 years, 91 days |
