Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar: The 40 players with the most goals in the 21st century

Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest goalscorer in the history of men’s professional football.

During the 2021/22 season with Manchester United, the Portuguese superstar surpassed Josef Bican’s haul of 805 goals for club and country.

Ronaldo‘s memorable hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford on March 12th saw him take top spot outright and it’s without question one of sport’s greatest ever achievements.

To score over 800 goals in the modern era almost beggars belief, with Barcelona legend Lionel Messi closing in on 800 himself.

The two Ballon d’Or hoarders are comfortably the two greatest goalscorers of the 21st century, but when it comes to the art of finding the back of the net, it’s not just all about Ronaldo and Messi.

Those trailing the pair deserve to have some time in the spotlight as well and the folks over at PopFoot will help us do just that for them.

The stats-based Twitter account have named the 40 players with the most goals for club and country since the turn of the millenium.

On top of that, they’ve included the goals-per-game ratio for each footballer mentioned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCGFe5oKnuI

Check out their data here…

40. Raul Gonzalez | 279 goals (0.40 goals-per-game)

39. Mohamed Salah | 279 goals (0.48 goals-per-game)

38. Dieumerci Mbokani | 279 goals (0.49 goals-per-game)

37. Roberto Soldado | 281 goals (0.40 goals-per-game)

36. Alvaro Negredo | 283 goals (0.40 goals-per-game)

35. Thomas Muller | 287 goals (0.37 goals-per-game)

34. Antonio Di Natale | 296 goals (0.46 goals-per-game)

33. Olivier Giroud | 297 goals (0.40 goals-per-game)

32. Youssef El Arabi | 300 goals (0.52 goals-per-game)

31. Fernando Torres | 301 goals (0.34 goals-per-game)

30. Claudio Pizarro | 301 goals (0.39