The UEFA Champions League has featured some of the greatest goalscorers football has ever seen.
From the legendary rivalry between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to the remarkable consistency of Robert Lewandowski and Karim Benzema, Europe’s biggest club competition has produced extraordinary scoring records.
Now a new generation is chasing them.
Kylian Mbappé finished the 2025/26 Champions League as top scorer with 15 goals, while Erling Haaland continues climbing the historical ranking.
But one player remains comfortably ahead of everyone.
Cristiano Ronaldo.
With 140 Champions League goals, Ronaldo remains the competition’s all-time leading scorer.
Here’s how the complete leaderboard looks.
Champions League All-Time Top Scorers
Goals below exclude qualifying rounds.
| Rank | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 140 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 129 |
| 3 | Robert Lewandowski | 109 |
| 4 | Karim Benzema | 90 |
| 5 | Raúl González | 71 |
| 6 | Kylian Mbappé | 70 |
| =7 | Erling Haaland | 57 |
| =7 | Thomas Müller | 57 |
| 9 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | 56 |
| 10 | Harry Kane | 52 |
| =11 | Thierry Henry | 50 |
| =11 | Mohamed Salah | 50 |
UEFA’s latest ranking keeps Ronaldo and Messi well clear at the top, with Lewandowski the only other player above 100 Champions League goals.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo — 140 Goals
Cristiano Ronaldo isn’t simply the Champions League’s leading scorer.
His record in the competition is extraordinary.
140 goals.
Ronaldo scored his Champions League goals for:
Manchester United
Real Madrid
Juventus
Remarkably, he didn’t score until his 27th Champions League appearance.
Once the goals started arriving, however, Ronaldo transformed into the competition’s most prolific scorer.
On 18 April 2017, he became the first player ever to reach 100 Champions League goals.
And his scoring record is only part of the story.
Ronaldo also holds the records for:
- Most Champions League goals — 140
- Most Champions League knockout goals — 67
- Most goals in a Champions League season — 17
- Most Champions League appearances — 183
- Seven seasons as Champions League top scorer
- Eight Champions League hat-tricks — joint record
He also won the competition five times.
Ronaldo’s Champions League legacy remains the benchmark.
2. Lionel Messi — 129 Goals
Just behind Ronaldo stands Lionel Messi.
129 Champions League goals.
Messi scored for:
Barcelona
Paris Saint-Germain
Most of those goals came during his extraordinary career at Barcelona, where he scored 120 Champions League goals.
Messi finished as the competition’s leading scorer on six occasions.
He also shares another major record with Ronaldo:
8 Champions League hat-tricks.
No player has recorded more.
For more than a decade, the Champions League scoring race became inseparable from the Ronaldo-Messi rivalry.
Together, they pushed the competition’s scoring records into territory that once seemed impossible.
3. Robert Lewandowski — 109 Goals
Robert Lewandowski became only the third player in Champions League history to pass 100 goals.
His total stands at:
109.
Lewandowski has scored Champions League goals for:
Borussia Dortmund
Bayern Munich
Barcelona
One of his greatest European campaigns came in 2019/20.
Lewandowski scored 15 Champions League goals as Bayern Munich went on to win the trophy.
His scoring efficiency has also been remarkable: UEFA notes that he needed only 100 matches to reach 80 Champions League goals, compared with 102 for Messi and 116 for Ronaldo.
4. Karim Benzema — 90 Goals
Karim Benzema sits fourth with:
90 goals.
He scored in the competition for Lyon before becoming a Champions League legend with Real Madrid.
His defining European campaign came in 2021/22.
Benzema scored 15 goals as Real Madrid won another European title.
That run included memorable knockout performances and helped establish Benzema among the competition’s greatest forwards.
5. Raúl — 71 Goals
Before Ronaldo and Messi rewrote the record books, Raúl González was the name most closely associated with Champions League goalscoring records.
The Real Madrid legend scored:
71 goals.
He represented:
Real Madrid
Schalke
For years, Raúl’s total looked enormous.
The arrival of the Ronaldo-Messi era completely changed the scale of the record.
But 71 goals still leaves Raúl fifth on UEFA’s all-time Champions League list.
6. Kylian Mbappé — 70 Goals
This is where the ranking becomes especially interesting.
Kylian Mbappé — 70 goals.
And unlike the five players ahead of him, Mbappé is still in his prime.
The Real Madrid forward produced a spectacular 2025/26 Champions League campaign.
He scored:
15 goals in 11 appearances.
That made him the tournament’s top scorer.
Mbappé scored 13 goals during the league phase alone, setting a competition record for that stage.
His season included:
- doubles against Marseille, Monaco and Benfica
- a hat-trick against Kairat Almaty
- four goals against Olympiacos
He finished just two goals short of Ronaldo’s single-season record.
At 70 career Champions League goals, Mbappé is now only one behind Raúl.
Ronaldo, Messi, Mbappé, legendary finals and unforgettable European nights — how much do you really know about the Champions League? Test yourself in our Ultimate Champions League Quiz.
Then:
=7. Erling Haaland — 57 Goals
Few players have scored Champions League goals as quickly as Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian already has:
57 goals.
His Champions League clubs include:
Red Bull Salzburg
Borussia Dortmund
Manchester City
Haaland finished as Champions League top scorer in 2020/21 and again in 2022/23, when Manchester City won the competition.
Given his age and scoring rate, Haaland remains one of the strongest candidates to climb much further up this ranking.
=7. Thomas Müller — 57 Goals
Level with Haaland is Bayern Munich legend Thomas Müller.
57 goals.
Unlike many players near the top of the ranking, Müller spent his entire Champions League career with one club:
Bayern Munich.
His longevity at Europe’s highest level helped him build one of the competition’s most impressive scoring totals.
9. Ruud van Nistelrooy — 56 Goals
Ruud van Nistelrooy scored:
56 Champions League goals.
His goals came for:
PSV Eindhoven
Manchester United
Real Madrid
Van Nistelrooy was Champions League top scorer three times, including consecutive campaigns in 2001/02 and 2002/03.
10. Harry Kane — 52 Goals
Harry Kane has now moved into the Champions League’s all-time top ten.
His total:
52 goals.
Kane scored for Tottenham before continuing his European career with Bayern Munich.
And 2025/26 was another huge season.
He scored:
14 Champions League goals.
That was the highest total ever by an English player in a single Champions League edition.
Only Mbappé scored more that season.
What Is the Record for Most Goals in One Champions League Season?
Cristiano Ronaldo holds it.
17 goals — 2013/14.
Ronaldo achieved the record during Real Madrid’s historic La Décima campaign.
The closest challengers include:
| Player | Season | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 2013/14 | 17 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 2015/16 | 16 |
| Kylian Mbappé | 2025/26 | 15 |
| Karim Benzema | 2021/22 | 15 |
| Robert Lewandowski | 2019/20 | 15 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 2017/18 | 15 |
| Lionel Messi | 2011/12 | 14 |
| Harry Kane | 2025/26 | 14 |
Mbappé therefore came within two goals of the all-time record during the 2025/26 campaign.
Who Has the Most Champions League Hat-Tricks?
The record is shared by two familiar names.
Lionel Messi — 8
Cristiano Ronaldo — 8
Behind them:
Robert Lewandowski — 6
Kylian Mbappé — 5
Karim Benzema — 4
Ronaldo also holds the record for most hat-tricks in a single Champions League season, scoring three in 2015/16.
Who Has the Most Champions League Knockout Goals?
Once again:
Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo scored 67 goals in Champions League knockout matches, another competition record.
Those goals helped Real Madrid dominate European football during the 2010s.
His ability to deliver in the knockout stages is a major reason his Champions League record remains so difficult to challenge.
Mbappé and Haaland: Can They Catch Ronaldo?
The biggest question for the next generation is whether anyone can eventually reach Ronaldo’s 140.
Mbappé is currently much closer.
After the 2025/26 season:
Ronaldo — 140
Mbappé — 70
That means Mbappé is exactly 70 goals behind Ronaldo’s record.
Haaland sits at 57.
Both still have time to climb dramatically, but Ronaldo’s total illustrates how difficult the challenge really is.
A player would need to score ten Champions League goals per season for seven seasons just for Mbappé to add another 70.
The record is reachable mathematically.
Maintaining that level for years is the difficult part.
Champions League Scoring Records at a Glance
All-time top scorer:
Cristiano Ronaldo — 140
Second:
Lionel Messi — 129
Third:
Robert Lewandowski — 109
Most goals in one season:
Cristiano Ronaldo — 17 (2013/14)
Most knockout-stage goals:
Cristiano Ronaldo — 67
Most hat-tricks:
Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi — 8 each
Most seasons as top scorer:
Cristiano Ronaldo — 7
2025/26 top scorer:
Kylian Mbappé — 15
Most goals by an English player in one season:
Harry Kane — 14 (2025/26)
Who Is the Greatest Champions League Goalscorer?
Different generations produced different types of greatness.
Messi combined extraordinary scoring with creativity.
Lewandowski became one of Europe’s most efficient finishers.
Benzema delivered some of his greatest performances when Real Madrid needed them most.
Mbappé and Haaland are now building records of their own.
But statistically, one player remains at the top.
Cristiano Ronaldo.
140 goals.
67 knockout goals.
17 goals in one season.
Seven top-scorer finishes.
Five Champions League titles.
Until someone surpasses those numbers, Ronaldo remains the benchmark for Champions League goalscoring.
