IFFHS World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer

IFFHS World's Best Man International Goal Scorer

Sport	Association football
Awarded for	Best international goal scorer of the calendar year
Presented by	International Federation of Football History & Statistics
History
First award	1997
Editions	28
First winner	Hakan Şükür
Most wins	Lionel Messi (4 awards)
Most recent	Viktor Gyökeres (36 goals in 2024)
Website	www.iffhs.com

Lionel Messi has won the award a record four times.

This award is given annually since 1997 to the player who scores the most goals in a league season (in a calendar year since 2020) in any of the top 60 leagues in the world (as ranked by IFFHS for that given year).

Men's winners

List of winners

Year	Winner	Club(s)	Goals
1997	Hakan Şükür	Galatasaray	38
1998	Iván Kaviedes	Emelec	43
1999	Mário Jardel	Porto	36
2000	Mário Jardel	Porto	38
2001	José Alfredo Castillo	Oriente Petrolero	42
2002	Joaquín Botero	Bolívar	49
2003	José Cardozo	Toluca	58
2004	Patricio Galaz	Cobreloa	42
2005	Clemerson Araújo	Gamba Osaka	33
2006	Klaas-Jan Huntelaar	Ajax	35
2007	Afonso Alves	Heerenveen	34
2008	Lucas Barrios	Colo-Colo	37
2009	Marc Janko	RB Salzburg	39
2010	Luis Suárez	Ajax	35
2011	Aleksandrs Čekulajevs	Narva Trans	46
2012	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	50
2013	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	46
2014	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	31
	Luis Suárez	Liverpool
2015	Cristiano Ronaldo	Real Madrid	48
2016	Luis Suárez	Barcelona	40
2017	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	37
2018	Lionel Messi	Barcelona	34
	Jonas	Benfica
2019	Baghdad Bounedjah	Al Sadd	39
Calendar year
2020	Cristiano Ronaldo	Juventus	33
2021	Robert Lewandowski[1]	Bayern Munich	43
2022	Germán Cano[2]	Fluminense	33
2023	Harry Kane[3]	Tottenham Hotspur Bayern Munich	38
2024	Viktor Gyökeres[4]	Sporting	36
Source:[5]

Statistics

Multiple winners (1997–present)

Player	Wins	Years
Lionel Messi	4	2012, 2013, 2017, 2018 (shared)
Luis Suárez	3	2010, 2014 (shared), 2016
Cristiano Ronaldo		2014 (shared), 2015, 2020
Mário Jardel	2	1999, 2000

The World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer of the First Decade (2001–2010)

The final list includes the 18 players who scored 150 or more goals in top-tier national leagues in the period of time from 1 January 2001 to 31 December 2010.

The results were posted on the IFFHS' official website on 25 September 2022.^[6]

Players with at least 180 goals

Rank	Player	Nation	Goals	Club(s)
1	Aleksandar Đurić	Singapore	246	Geylang United (2001–04) Singapore Armed Forces FC (2005–09) Tampines Rovers (2010)
2	Marc Lloyd Williams	Wales	236	Bangor City (2001–02; 2003; 2006-07) Southport (2002–03) Aberystwyth Town (2003–04) The New Saints (2004–06) Newtown (2007–08) Rhyl (2008) Porthmadog (2008–09) Airbus UK Broughton (2009–10)
3	Washington	Brazil	214	Ponte Preta (2001–02) Fenerbahçe (2002–03) Athletico Paranaense (2004) Tokyo Verdy (2005) Urawa Red Diamonds (2006-07) Fluminense (2008; 2010) São Paulo (2009-10)
4	Rhys Griffiths	Wales	198	Cwmbrân Town (2001–02) Haverfordwest County (2002–04) Carmarthen Town (2004) Port Talbot Town (2004–06) Llanelli Town (2006–10)
5	Thierry Henry	France	182	Arsenal (2001–07) Barcelona (2007–10)
6	Magno Alves	Brazil	182	Fluminense (2001–02) Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (2003) Oita Trinita (2004-05) Gamba Osaka (2006–07) Ittihad Club (2007-08) Umm Salal (2008-10)
7	Maksim Gruznov	Estonia	180	Narva Trans (2001–08) Sillamäe Kalev (2009-10)

The World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer of the Second Decade (2011–2020)

The final list includes the 36 players who scored 150 or more goals in top-tier national leagues in the period of time from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2020.

The results were posted on the IFFHS' official website on 6 January 2021.^[7]

Players with at least 200 goals

Rank	Player	Nation	Goals	Club(s)
1	Lionel Messi	Argentina	346	Barcelona (2011–20)
2	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	332	Real Madrid (2011–18) Juventus (2018–20)
3	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	248	Borussia Dortmund (2011–14) Bayern Munich (2014–20)
4	Zlatan Ibrahimović	Sweden	236	Milan (2011–12; 2019–20) Paris Saint-Germain (2012–16) Manchester United (2016–18) LA Galaxy (2018–19)
5	Luis Suárez	Uruguay	224	Liverpool (2011–14) Barcelona (2014–20) Atlético Madrid (2020)
6	Carlos Saucedo	Bolivia	213	San José (2012–13; 2017–19) Saprissa (2014) Oriente Petrolero (2015) Blooming (2015–16) Real Potosí (2016) Guabirá (2017) Royal Pari (2020)
7	Edinson Cavani	Uruguay	209	Napoli (2011–13) Paris Saint-Germain (2013–20) Manchester United (2020)

All-time World's Best Top Division Goal Scorer ranking

Ferenc Puskás

Main article: List of footballers with 400 or more goals in domestic leagues worldwide

As of 19 March 2025^{[8][9][10][11]}

Bold indicates players currently active.

Players with at least 400 goals

Rank	Player	Goals
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	565
2	Lionel Messi	519
3	Josef Bican	515
	Ferenc Puskás
5	Imre Schlosser	417
6	Gyula Zsengellér	416
7	Jimmy McGrory	409
8	Robert Lewandowski	408
9	Gerd Müller	405
10	Luis Suárez	402

Lucie Martínková was the top women's goal scorer for club in 2021.

Women's winners

List of winners

The women's award was introduced in 2021.

Year	Winner	Club	Goals
2021	Lucie Martínková[12]	Sparta Prague	38
2022	Mia Fishel[13]	UANL	33
2023	Charlyn Corral[14]	Pachuca	34
2024	Charlyn Corral[15]	Pachuca	42

See also

• International Federation of Football History & Statistics
• IFFHS World's Best Club
• IFFHS World's Best Player
• IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper
• IFFHS World's Best International Goal Scorer
• IFFHS World Team
• IFFHS World's Best Club Coach
• IFFHS World's Best National Coach

References

1. "IFFHS MEN'S WORLD BEST TOP DIVISION GOALSCORER 2021". IFFHS. 1 January 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
2. "IFFHS AWARDS 2022 - MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORER". IFFHS. 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
3. "IFFHS MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORER 2023". IFFHS. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 2 January 2024.
4. "IFFHS AWARDS 2024 - VIKTOR GYOKERES, MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOALSCORER". IFFHS. 3 January 2025. Retrieved 3 January 2025.
5. "The World's Best Football Men National Goal Scorer (National Goals)". IFFHS. Archived from the original on 14 April 2021. Retrieved 6 November 2021.
6. "IFFHS WORLD'S BEST NATIONAL GOAL SCORER OF THE DECADE 2001-2010 : Aleksandar Đurić". IFFHS. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
7. "IFFHS WORLD'S BEST NATIONAL GOAL SCORER OF THE DECADE 2011-2020 : LIONEL MESSI". IFFHS. Retrieved 28 May 2023.
8. "Suárez and Lewandowski reached 400 national league goals". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. 30 October 2024. Retrieved 9 February 2025.
9. "CR7, new best ever national leagues' goal-scorer !". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. 30 August 2023. Retrieved 2 November 2024.
10. "TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORERS OF ALL TIME : FERENC PUSKAS LEADS THE RANKING". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. 12 November 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
11. "MEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL GOAL SCORER OF XXI CENTURY". International Federation of Football History & Statistics. 19 January 2023. Retrieved 19 January 2023.
12. "IFFHS WOMEN'S WORLD BEST TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORER 2021". IFFHS. 30 December 2021. Archived from the original on 30 December 2021. Retrieved 4 January 2022.
13. "IFFHS AWARDS 2022 - WOMEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORER". IFFHS. 2 January 2023. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
14. "IFFHS WOMEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOAL SCORER 2023". IFFHS. 1 January 2024. Retrieved 1 January 2024.
15. "IFFHS AWARDS 2024 - CHARLYN CORRAL, WOMEN'S WORLD BEST NATIONAL TOP DIVISION GOALSCORER". IFFHS. 2 January 2025. Retrieved 2 January 2025.

External links

• IFFHS official website