Over the years, the UEFA Champions League has been adorned with a profusion of outstanding goal scorers. Marco Van Basten, Ronaldo Nazario, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, Erling Haaland, and Kylian Mbappe are just a few of the players that have scored a lot of goals in this competition. While offensive and midfielders are responsible for the majority of a team’s goals, the Champions League has seen some incredible goalscoring defenders. Surprisingly, the goalkeepers have also contributed at times.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for most goals in the Champions League. In the competition, he has 134 goals for three different clubs. In the Champions League, Ronaldo has a spate of scoring records. He is the only player to score in the Champions League final for two different winning clubs, Manchester United and Real Madrid. Real Madrid won La Decima in 2013-14 thanks to his 17 goals, the most by a player in a Champions League campaign. The Portuguese superstar is the only player to score in all six group games in a season and the first to score 100 goals in the competition. He has the most Champions League titles of any player in UEFA history, with five.
Robert Lewandowski
In the Champions League’s history, Robert Lewandowski is the most prolific goalscoring center-forward. In the tournament, the Polish striker has 73 goals, the majority of which have come for Bayern Munich. In 2019-20, he earned his lone Champions League title, collecting a career-high 15 goals. That season, against Red Star Belgrade, Lewandowski recorded the fastest quadruple in competitive history, scoring four goals in 14 minutes. When Bayern Munich takes on Barcelona in the 2021-22 Champions League, Lewandowski will be hoping to make an immediate impact.
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi, along with Cristiano Ronaldo, is the best athlete to ever play in the Champions League. In the tournament, he has a total of 120 goals. Messi, like his Portuguese opponent, has a slew of Champions League records. In the Champions League, the Argentine has scored against a record 36 different opponents. In 2012, he became the first player in Champions League history to score five goals in a single game. The four-time Champions League winner is the first player in the competition’s history to score in 16 straight seasons. Now with PSG, Messi will attempt to equal Ronaldo’s record of five titles by winning the championship for the fifth time.