Top	Player	Number of goals
1.	Cristiano Ronaldo	873
2.	Lionel Messi	821
3.	Josef Bican	805
4.	Romario	772
5.	Pele	757
6.	Ferenc Puskas	746
7.	Gerd Muller	734
8.	Ferenc Deak	576
9.	Uwe Seeler	575
9.	Tulio Maravilha	575

Goals only count in official matches.

Ronaldo’s scoring record from FIFA

Ronaldo has been dubbed “the greatest player of all time” by some teammates and fans. However, Ronaldo’s current record for goals is not necessarily the greatest as some football researchers believe that there are still no complete records of football history before the 20th century.

Ronaldo broke the record of Josef Bican – who scored 805 goals in 24 years from 1931 to 1955. Ronaldo spent 21 years in his football career, starting with the 2002/03 season.

But there is still much debate about Bican’s actual goals record. Pele also shared that he has scored more than 1,000 goals in his career (specifically 1,283 goals) – although that has not been confirmed.

Controversy over scoring records

Although Ronaldo has established himself as ‘the player who scores the most goals in official FIFA matches’, controversy over this title will continue.

The Czech Football Federation often questions Bican’s goal number of 805, claiming that this player actually scored 821 goals.

The best goalscorer in football history? 🤔

The History and Statistics committee of the Czech FA counted all the goals scored by the legendary Josef Bican and we can declare he scored 821 goals in official matches.

Jaroslav Kolář, the Head of the committee shares more details. pic.twitter.com/eYqTcGJf1p

— Czech Football National Team (@ceskarepre_eng) January 21, 2021

Bican fans confirm that Bican’s number of goals (821 goals) is accurate. However, according to ESPN, FIFA believes that this number may still not be correct as the total number of goals this player scored could be up to 823.

FIFA and CONMEBOL have previously recorded Pele scoring a total of 1,281 goals in 1,363 matches, but these goals include youth matches, friendlies and also unofficial matches.

On the other hand, the Guinness Book of World Records records Pele scoring 1,279 goals. Therefore, there is still no source that can accurately verify the number of goals during his career.

Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal statistics

Out of a total of 870, Ronaldo scored more than half of the goals (450) at Real Madrid.

The Portuguese superstar scored 145 goals at Manchester United, 127 goals for the Portuguese national team, 101 goals for Juventus and 5 goals for Sporting CP.

In 2022/23, Ronaldo ranked 5th on the Saudi Pro League top scorer chart, despite joining midway through the season. Previously, 18 goals in the Premier League 2021/22 helped CR7 ranked 3rd. In the 2020/21 season, Ronaldo won the title of top scorer at Euro 2021 as well as the Italian Serie A tournament with Juventus (29 goals).

Football team	Number of goals
Real Madrid	450
Manchester United	145
Portuguese team	128
Juventus	101
Al Nassr	44
Sporting CP	5
TOTAL	873