Soccer, or football everywhere else in the world, is known as The Beautiful Game and has attracted some of the most talented athletes in sports history. Pele to Lionel Messi, the history of football has a variety of goal-scoring legends. However, the one question that resonates throughout time is:
who are all-time football scorers? Fans and pundits alike have pondered over this question, the answer to which might surprise you. We look at the numbers, as well as the myths and intricacies behind football’s greatest goalscorer.
The Undisputed King of Goals: Josef Bican
You hear names like – Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, and Pele when the all-time top goal-scorers are discussed. But the official record of top goalscorer in football history is held by a figure less known to most casual fans: Josef Bican.
Austrian-Czech footballer Josef Bican a career from the 1930s to 1950s -> A record holder of goals in official matches – as many as staggering 805 ticks. He was a prolific scorer in his time, netting goals like few others, and even to this day remains head and shoulders above everyone else.
Bican, of course, despite playing in the 1930s and some believe his goals at Rec. Sport. According to the Rec. Sports Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF), a site known for its trustworthiness of historical dates, the inaugural Copa in 1913 was played at three different times between May and September of that year!
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Modern-Day Goal Machines: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi
The debate nowadays typically rages around Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. In the history of F1, two all-time greats who have taken over this era for nearly twenty years now with rewriting records after another season.
Cristiano Ronaldo has moved past the 800-goal mark, a territory reserved for only a privileged group of football’s best-ever goal-scorers. That career is currently boasting over 820 goals as of 2024 and is still extended by more to come in the future. The Portuguese forward has scored goals in the Premier League, La Liga, and Serie A as well for Portugal on international duty.
Lionel Messi has over 790, just behind Ronaldo Despite an injury controversy in his career, which played out much of its latter years at Barcelona and then led to him playing for Paris Saint-Germain before moving on Serie A side Inter Miami after bounding chains throughout the league has meant that Lionel Messi is never more than a goal away from becoming something special.
His La Liga record-breaking number of goals, and his role in both Argentina’s Copa America win as well their World Cup triumph solidify that legacy.
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Brazilian Class Acts: Pele And Romário
It is impossible to list the top goal-scorers in football history without including two Brazilian legends at their best Pele & Romário.
Pele is frequently cited as having scored more than 1,000 goals in his career, though many of these were unofficial games or exhibitions. Pele boasts an official goal tally of 757, a total that has led many to label him as the greatest footballer ever. Pele scored his goals during a period when he was the most recognizable Brazilian footballer in history, going on to lift three World Cups for the nation.
Romário, a fellow Brazilian goal machine is next in line with 772 official goals. Romário, who scored a goal in the 1994 World Cup Final | Brazilian Football Confederation/Getty Images It is a goal-scoring record that also encompasses his performances in Europe, mainly at PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona and even when playing for clubs on the Brazil league circuit.
The Hungarian Legend, Ferenc Puskás
Ferenc Puskás is a Hungarian forward who wowed the world in both the 1950s and ’60s when people talk about some of the best goal-scorers ever his name pops up too. In total, Puskás scored 746 goals in official matches throughout his whole career as a real star at Real Madrid and for the Hungarian national team. As the scorer of fabulous goals and an icon in a period when Hungary was one of the top footballing nations, his name has become synonymous.
Is Goal Scoring a Dying Art?
This debate on who scores that mostly as a footballer brings to the fore arguments not just numerical, but also historical points. The game has changed a lot since Bican’s time. Sidenote: The speed of the game, the physicality, and even how the defense is played now make it impossible to compare players from different eras.
Today footballers are crazily fit compared with 50-60 years ago, current players like Ronaldo or Messi play in a time of far more scientific fitness and competition playing an extra ten to twenty games per year at least makes that argument stronger.
There would still be a handful of goals in general, but this is justifying having played fewer games to note the same number as more recent players since Bican/ Pele/Puskás could simply score more per game given that they might have done so when football was arguably even better or easier for attackers.
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FAQs
1. The Highest Scorer in Football as at 2024
The official record holder is Josef Bican with 805 goals in competitive matches. Nonetheless, Cristiano Ronaldo has more than 820 goals and is thus the top scorer of the active users.
2. Did Cristiano Ronaldo break Josef Bican’s record?
There are trickier questions here when it comes to loftily assessing the number of goals scored and by whom, as Crippa has his doubts on how certain sources categorize them across divisions but from 2024 onwards Messi no longer holds the top spot in the goal chart ranking(the Official list) for longest anyone can have a single digit – Cristiano Ronaldo now clears Bican’s official target tally.
3. Number of Goals did Lionel Messi score
By 2024, Lionel Messi has scored the reborn of over 790 goals and however, and he is been among the most goal scorers in history.
4. The easiest question of all, is who is the highest scorer in football history – Pele!!
Pele is usually referred to, as one of the most goal-scorers and comes with a count that counts official goals: 757 goals. He scored over 1,000 goals in all competitive matches excluding friendlies but the latter one is not recorded by official data.
5. So, how important is Josef Bican in world football history?
Similarly, Josef Bican is important as the official all-time top scorer in competitive matches and therefore a legendary figure for football.
6. Ronaldo and Messi Who is the best goal scorer?
This is a subjective debate. Ronaldo has the edge on goals, but Messi is right behind him, and they both have qualities that make them a cut above the rest.
7. How the goal-scoring records are checked by football historians is what we want to cover today.
To verify football goal-scoring records, a full source list can be punctilious): (Note: To validate the football have tried our best possible efforts to extract all references from it. Sources – match reports; league archives with a mix of additional reliables); RSSSF.statistics is an essential resource for most football historians on facts about goalscores in competitive games published online(goal.com).
8. Why can some footballers outscore everyone else?
Some factors like longevity, consistency, playing style, or (not mentioned here) a position and era you played during can all impact being named the top scorer.
9. Any other top scorers I missed? Let me know if anyone is on the verge, of making it toward those lists.
If players of Robert Lewandowski and Erling Haaland don’t change the team, they can also challenge these records as a goal-scoring machine these days.
10. In what other ways has the football style shifted to play a part in altering goal-scoring statistics?
These days, football has moved on and is played at a faster pace with an increased level of physicality that simply didn’t exist in eras gone by – coupled with better defensive strategies to clamp down on space -which can make goals harder to come by than they were back when.
Conclusion
Who is The Top Football Scorer of all Time? begins a riveting track back in the time of football and the stories of legends born throughout its existence.
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi may have broken plenty of records on their way to the top, but when it comes to goals scored in FIFA-recognized competition games Bican still holds two world records even though he’s no longer officially a record holder – as his quote above emphasizes. Just as the game of football continues to develop, so there will be future legends that can add their name to this list in years yet unplayed but few are likely to ever surpass these truly great figures.