While we are unfortunately going to witness the end of the Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi era, there are still a lot of reasons to be excited. The two players have graced and blessed our screens over the last decades and have been giving us new reasons to love the beautiful game. Although they have caused division among fans, with some choosing to support Messi, while the others choosing to support Ronaldo, at the end of the day, we would still have to appreciate their contributions to football in general.
And now, even though their careers are nearing a tail-end, they have not stopped scoring goals. Both of them are currently part of the highest goalscorers in the history of football, and with Ronaldo recently scoring a hat-trick against Cagliari for Juventus, he has now surpassed Brazilian legend Pele’s official goals tally of 767. The three goals Ronaldo scored took his own tally to 770, setting up a three-goal gap between his record and Pele’s.
While Ronaldo has gone past Messi on the chart, both of them still have to chase down Josef Bican’s record. While Ronaldo is now the second highest scorer after moving past former Brazilian player Romario on the all-time list, Messi also recently snatched the sixth position from Germany’s legend Gerd Muller this April.
Here’s the list.
- Tulio Maravilha
575 goals (total games unknown) – 1988-2019
9, Uwe Seeler
575+ goals (total games unknown) – 1953-1978
- Ferenc Deak
576+ goals (total games unknown) – 1940-1957
- Gerd Muller
734 goals in 793 games – 1962-1981
- Lionel Messi
736 goals in 913 games – 2003-present
- Ferenc Puskas
746+ goals in 754+ games – 1943-1966
- Pele
767+ goals in 831 games – 1957-1977
- Romario
772 goals 994 games – 1985-2007
- Cristiano Ronaldo
773 goals in 1062 games – 2001-present
- Josef Bican
805+ goals in 530+ games – 1931-1956