The Champions League is the most prestigious football competition on the planet, and we can reveal the top players who have scored the most goals in this tournament. Originally known as the European Cup (and still referred to as this by many), the inaugural season took place in 1955/56 and quickly became the pinnacle of football on the continent, with the champions of each country competing.
The tournament was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992, which has since given way to the format we know today. Guaranteed group-stage fixtures have offered more opportunities for players of the modern era to score, elbowing most players of bygone eras out of the record books.
Throughout its near-70-year history, the competition has played host to some of the greatest teams, managers and players the sport has ever seen. Here are the most prolific scorers in Champions League history.
Goals in the qualifying rounds of the competition are not included.
Top Champions League Goalscorers | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Rank | Player | Clubs | Goals |
1. | Cristiano Ronaldo | Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus | 140 |
2. | Lionel Messi | Barcelona, PSG | 129 |
3. | Robert Lewandowski | Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona | 94 |
4. | Karim Benzema | Lyon, Real Madrid | 90 |
5. | Raul Gonzalez | Real Madrid, Schalke | 71 |
6. | Ruud van Nistelrooy | PSV, Manchester United, Real Madrid | 56 |
7. | Thomas Muller | Bayern Munich | 54 |
8. | Thierry Henry | Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona | 50 |
9. | Alfredo Di Stefano | Real Madrid | 49 |
10= | Kylian Mbappe | Monaco, PSG | 48 |
10= | Andriy Shevchenko | Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Chelsea | 48 |
10= | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG, Man Utd | 48 |
12 Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 48 goals
Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG, Man Utd
One of the greatest players never to win the Champions League, Zlatan Ibrahimovic did everything in his power to lift the big-eared trophy. The Swede’s first appearance in the competition – which he marked with a match-winning brace – came 19 years before his final outing. In the intervening two decades, Ibrahimovic turned out for seven different clubs, scoring for all but Manchester United in Europe’s premier club competition.
Zlatan never even made it to a Champions League final. The closest he ever came to continent glory was in 2010 when his Barcelona side lost 2-3 on aggregate to Inter Milan – the club that Ibrahimovic had left less than a year earlier. “I told him that if he wins the Champions League with Barcelona he won’t be doing anything extraordinary,” The Italian club’s boss, Jose Mourinho, said that summer. “I like doing something extraordinary, not what’s normal.” Mourinho lived up to his word and steered Inter to victory against Bayern Munich in the final.
11 Andriy Shevchenko – 48 goals
Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Chelsea
Andriy Shevchenko announced himself to the wider world as one of the best strikers of his era with a hat-trick for Dynamo Kyiv at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium in the 1997/98 Champions League. For many players, that would be the highlight of their career, but Shevchenko’s talismanic manager, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, saw it as “just the beginning”. “You’re reaching a level that only a few ever attain,” he told the then-21-year-old. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever be satisfied.”
A proud disciple of Lobanovskyi’s transformative methodology, Shevchenko adhered to every word uttered by a manager he called “a genius. A visionary. A subversive, perpetually on the trail of perfection”. When the Ukrainian icon won the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003, he took the trophy to the bronze statue of Lobanovskyi which was constructed in Kyiv shortly after his passing one year earlier.
10 Kylian Mbappe – 48 goals
Monaco, PSG
When Kylian Mbappe was 15, his class was tasked with sketching up a mock magazine front cover. The ambitious Frenchman plastered his own face across Time magazine beneath the headline: “El Maestro”. Four years later, Mbappe found himself on the actual publication.
The jet-heeled forward established himself as a star of the next generation with his performances for Monaco during the 2016/17 campaign, winning Ligue 1 and reaching the Champions League semi-finals. Still only 18, Mbappe moved to Paris Saint-Germain for a nine-digit fee. The goals in Europe’s elite competition have only increased, but Mbappe is still waiting for the first continental trophy of his club career. No doubt his move to Real Madrid was made with European glory in mind.
9 Alfredo Di Stefano – 49 goals
Real Madrid
Alfredo Di Stefano is the only man in the top 10 from the “European Cup” era, with the Champions League format being introduced in 1992. Unquestionably one of the greatest football players of all time, the roaming forward was the key man in Real Madrid’s five consecutive continental titles to kickstart the new competition, scoring in all five finals.
As he sought a way out of Colombian side Millonarios in 1953, Di Stefano was pursued by Madrid and arch-rivals Barcelona. After an initial agreement to share the commanding forward, the capital club paid extra to ensure that they had the full rights to the player. It was the best money the club have ever spent.
8 Thierry Henry – 50 goals
Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona
Thierry Henry rarely hit the heights in Europe that he did in the Premier League with Arsenal, where he was the undisputed best player in the league. This is shown in his less-than-a-goal every-two-game record for both the Gunners (35 in 77) and in the Champions League in general (50 in 112).
He played in two finals, both featuring Barcelona. In 2006, he captained and carried Arsenal to the showpiece in Paris, only to come up short late on to Ronaldinho and co. after Jens Lehmann had been sent off. Three years later, he was part of Pep Guardiola’s first winning side, who convincingly defeated Manchester United.
7 Thomas Muller – 54 goals
Bayern Munich
Alongside Di Stefano, Thomas Muller is the only player on this list to score all his Champions League/European Cup goals for one side. His first for Bayern Munich came in 2009 as he became a key player in Louis Van Gaal’s squad that made the 2009/10 final, only to lose to Jose Mourinho’s Inter.
Three more finals have since come for the German – a heart-breaking penalty kick loss in 2012 to Chelsea (Muller had opened the scoring in a home final for the Bavarian giants), and then wins in 2013 and 2020 against Borussia Dortmund and PSG respectively. Some of Muller’s goals may look a little fortuitous, but always being in the right place is no fluke. As the playmaker once said: “Getting lucky all the time is a sign of quality.”
6 Ruud van Nistelrooy – 56 goals
PSV, Manchester United, Real Madrid
Ruud van Nistelrooy never won the Champions League or even reached a final. The closest he came was a semi in his first season with Manchester United, losing to Bayer Leverkusen by the finest of margins before UEFA scrapped the away goals rule. Van Nistelrooy’s lack of European silverware was not for want of endeavour, effort or excellence, as he won the Champions League Golden Boot in three of his five seasons at Old Trafford (2001/02, 2002/03, 2004/05).
The Dutch poacher’s 35 goals in 43 Champions League appearances for United makes him their top scorer in Europe’s premier competition. Respectable tallies of eight in 11 for PSV and 13 in 19 for Real Madrid either side of his spell in England showed his enduring brilliance.
5 Raul – 71 goals
Real Madrid, Schalke
The crown prince of Real Madrid and winner of three Champions Leagues, Raul has a perfect one-in-two ratio in the tournament, with 71 goals coming in 142 appearances in the competition. The former Atletico Madrid youth team player forced his way into a Real side that had developed an unhealthy obsession with the Champions League after a 32-year drought. Raul was instrumental in ending the pain, helping Madrid win their first European title on colour television in 1998.
The vast majority of his goals came during a trophy-laden 15 years with Real Madrid. But after handing the number seven shirt to Cristiano Ronaldo in 2010, Raul’s one season of Champions League football with Bundesliga side FC Schalke saw him score five goals and help them to a semi-final berth.
4 Karim Benzema – 90 goals
Lyon, Real Madrid
The man who overtook Raul in the all-time Real Madrid goalscoring ranks also outscored him in Europe. Karim Benzema was always a top striker (as seen by 12 in 19 for Lyon pre-Madrid) but acted in a support role to Cristiano Ronaldo until 2018, winning four Champions League medals in the process.
Following CR7’s departure, the Frenchman took his game to a whole new level. The 2021/22 season saw him score 15 goals and have perhaps the best knockout run of all time as Madrid mounted comeback after comeback against PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool. This won him his fifth Champions League and the 2022 Ballon d’Or.
3 Robert Lewandowski – 94 goals
Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Barcelona
LewanGOALski has certainly lived up to the name Thomas Muller gave him in the Champions League. The Polish forward’s unrelenting torrent of strikes – including four in the semi-final against Real Madrid – helped Dortmund to the 2013 final.
Dortmund lost the showpiece event at Wembley to Bayern Munich, who promptly snapped up the Pole in 2014. Lewandowski evolved into one of the top goalscorers in football history in Bavaria. The 2019/20 campaign was the crowning achievement of his career as Bayern won the European treble while Lewandowski finished as top scorer in all three competitions. His goalscoring has continued at Barcelona following his 2022 summer move.
2 Lionel Messi – 129 goals
Barcelona, PSG
Now for the big two. Lionel Messi holds the record for most Champions League/European Cup goals for one club, with 120 of his 129 coming with Barcelona (the other nine with PSG). He won the big-eared pot four times with the Catalan giants, scoring in both the 2009 and 2011 finals against Manchester United, the second of which might be the best club performance of all time.
His iconic era at Barcelona also saw him win six Champions League Golden Boots and even score five goals in one game against Bayer Leverkusen in 2012. This was just one of his eight hat tricks in the competition, a record he shares with his greatest rival.
1 Cristiano Ronaldo – 140 goals
Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus
Messi might be considered the greatest of all time by most, but when it comes to the Champions League, Cristiano Ronaldo remains the top dog. Stunningly, despite being the top scorer ever in the competition, it took Ronaldo 27 games to open his European account at Manchester United, with his maiden strike coming in a quarter-final second leg against Roma in 2007.
From there he took off, becoming the top scorer in the competition as United won their third title in 2007/08. He did this a further six times with Real Madrid following his blockbuster £80m move in the summer of 2009, winning four more titles in the process. The goals continued to come at Juventus and in his second stint at United, which helped make him the clear all-time top scorer.
Stats via Transfermarkt. Correct as of 15-09-24.