Top 10 UEFA Champions League all-time top scorers

The top two Champions League goal scorers are Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi, while Robert Lewandowski is now in third place with a goal from his own century. Ronaldo has scored goals for Real Madrid, Juventus, and Manchester United, while Messi has scored goals for Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain.

The UEFA Champions League was first played in 1992–1993, and since then, it has come to be associated with the greatest attackers in football history. Karim Benzema, Robert Lewandowski, Lionel Messi, and Cristiano Ronaldo have all amassed impressive goal totals.

Ronaldo and Messi are the only players to date to score over 100 goals in the competition, and like the remaining players in the all-time European Cup/Champions League top 10, neither featured in the competition when it was still the European Champion Clubs’ Cup.

With no group stage and knockout ties throughout, players had fewer games per season to score in that competition, which was originally introduced in 1955–56. Real Madrid only played seven games to win the first edition, as opposed to 13 games to win the Champions League in 2023–2024.

Alfredo Di Stéfano, the all-time European Cup top scorer, scored 49 goals in just 58 games, which is a goals-per-game rate that none of the contemporary greats can match.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the most prolific player in senior international football history and the all-time leading scorer in the Champions League and UEFA club tournament.

He wasn’t a striker at first, and it wasn’t until his 27th Champions League match during his first stint at Manchester United that he scored. But after leaving Old Trafford to join Real Madrid, the Portuguese legend began to score goals with frightening regularity after moving from the wing to a center hitting position.

In his 137th game, he scored a hat-trick against Bayern on April 18, 2017, making him the first player to reach 100 goals in the Champions League.

Ronaldo is the only player to date to score in three Champions League finals, having won the tournament once with United and four times with Real Madrid. He has eight Champions League hat-tricks, just like Messi.

Here is the list of the top 10 UEFA Champions League all time top scorers, excluding qualifying:

Cristiano Ronaldo – 140 (POR, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus)