The Champions League has featured some of the best goalscorers in history.
As the premier club competition in Europe and arguably the world, it is a stage that has been graced by countless icons of football.
Striking sensations such as Raul and Andriy Shevchenko dominated during the 1990s and 2000s, while Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have taken the art of scoring to a whole new level.
As you can see from our table below, Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of the Champions League (including the European Cup) and the Real Madrid star is closely followed by his arch-rival, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi .
There is a significant gulf between that pair and the rest, with Madrid icon Raulfollowing in third place. Former Manchester United forward Ruud van Nistelrooyis the fourth best Champions League goalscorer of all time, while Karim Benzema rounds out the top five.
The composition of the all-time goalscorers list is mostly made up of players who are playing or played in the modern Champions League era (i.e. 1992 onwards) which has added more contintental games to the modern day calendar. Specifically, of the 20 players in the list above, 15 of them played from the mid 1990s on.
However, despite that, two players who played in the pre-Champions League era (when the tournament was known as the European Cup) still make the top 10, with former Real Madrid star Alfredo di Stefano and Benfica icon Eusebiofeaturing.
Ferenc Puskas and Francisco Gento , who shone for Real Madrid in the 1950s and 1960s, are also in the top 20. Former Bayern Munich striker Gerd Muller is in the top 20 and no player comes remotely close to his phenomenal goals-per-game ratio of 0.95.
Puskas boasted a goal-to-game ratio of 0.85 and Di Stefano’s was 0.84, while Messi’s is currently 0.81, which is undoubtedly the best in the modern era.
