Five players with the most goals in the history of the UEFA Champions League

Five players with the most goals in the history of the UEFA Champions League

The Champions League has featured some of the best goalscorers in history. As the premier club competition in Europe and arguably the world, it is a stage that has been graced by countless icons of football.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the top scorer in the history of the Champions League (including the European Cup). He is closely followed by his arch-rival, Lionel Messi.

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There is a significant gulf between that pair and the rest, both Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowski and Real Madrid sensation Karim Benzema following in third while Raul completes the top five, with the likes of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Thomas Muller and Thierry Henry among the best of the rest.

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Here are five players who have scored the most goals in the Champions League competition over the year

5. Raul – 71 goals

Real Madrid’s Raul held the record of the highest goalscorer in the Champions League history for a long time before it was broken by another Madritista Cristiano Ronaldo and has been overtaken by the aforementioned players since.

Born and raised in Madrid, Raul was part of Real Madrid’s ‘Galactico’ era in which they won three Champions League trophies and also scored five goals in the Champions League for Shalke.

4. Karim Benzema – 86 goals

Sharing the third spot with Lewandoski is Real Madrid talisman, Karim Benzema with 86 goals in 141 games. He has scored for Olympique Lyon and Real Madrid in the competition.

He has the goal-scoring left by the departure of Cristiani Ronaldo on his shoulders and scored in important fixtures as seen in recent fixtures against PSG, Chelsea, and Manchester City this season. He can go clear of Lewandoski this season itself if he scores in the Champions League Final on May 28 against Liverpool.

3. Robert Lewandoski – 86 goals

Bayern Hitman Robert Lewandoski shares the third spot with Real Madrid’s Karim Benzema with 86 goals but in 35 fewer games.

‘LewanGOALski’ as referred to by his teammate Muller has been the focal point of Bayern Munich’s attack for seven seasons after his free transfer move from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund. He has won the competition one time in the all-conquering Bayern side of 2019-20.

2. Leo Messi – 125 goals

Four-time winner of the competition, Former Barcelona and current PSG forward, Lionel Messi, is the second top scorer of the competition with 125 goals in 156 games.

He has better goals to game ratio than Ronaldo with 0.82 goals per game. His last Champions League triumph was in the 2014-15 season under Luis Enrique with the famous trio of himself, Luiz Suarez, and Neymar famously known as MSN tormenting their opponents to achieve the glory.

1. Cristiano Ronaldo – 140 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo is Mr. Champions League. He has won Europe’s premier competition five times which is the most in the Champions League era. He has scored 140 goals in 181 games for European giants such as Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus. He is the only one in the competition’s history to score in the final for two different clubs and also the top scorer in the finals with 4 goals to his name.

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