♣ List of men's footballers with 1,000 or more official appearances

In association football, at least 45 players have played at least 1,000 official matches at all age levels. Regarding youth football, only matches with national teams are counted, as such data for club levels cannot be found for the majority of the players. Regarding B teams and reserve teams, appearances for such teams are only included if made in the primary football pyramid and not in reserve divisions.

English goalkeeper Peter Shilton holds the record for the most appearances, making over 1,400 appearances between the 1960s and 1990s, including a national record of 125 appearances for England, and in 1996 became the first footballer to make 1,000 league appearances. In March 2022, Robert Carmona from Uruguay was recognized as the oldest active footballer by Guinness World Records and was reported as having played around 2,200 official matches, a total that would place him at the top of the list by far; however, due to a lack of details about the distribution of these matches per year and team, or even which teams he played for, he cannot currently be added to the list.

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♣ List of top international men's football goal scorers by country

This article lists the top all-time goalscorer for each men's national football team. This list is not an all-time top international goalscorers list, as several countries have two or more players with more goals than another country's top scorer. It simply lists only the top scorer for each country.

List of top scorers

Rank is a count of the 211 FIFA nations. Thirteen nations (Aruba, Bulgaria, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Gibraltar, Lesotho, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Scotland, Suriname, United States and U.S. Virgin Islands) have a pair of players tied for national leader. Anguilla, Eritrea and Nepal have three players tied as their leading scorer. These are all counted as one nation each.

♣ List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps

In association football, a cap is traditionally awarded in international football to a player making an official appearance for their national team. This article lists all men's football players who have played in 100 or more official international matches for a national football team according to world football's global governing body FIFA. In total, 613 men's footballers from 112 nationalities have officially played in 100 or more international matches. The record for the most official men's international appearances is currently held by Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal with 206 caps, surpassing Bader Al-Mutawa of Kuwait's previous record total of 196 caps in March 2023.

Prior to Bader Al-Mutawa, the record was held by Soh Chin Ann of Malaysia, with 195 caps. This was only ratified by FIFA in August 2021, despite Soh Chin Ann playing his final game for Malaysia in 1984. In total, Soh Chin Ann has made 219 appearances for Malaysia. This discrepancy is due to FIFA not recognising matches such as those within the Olympic Games and those not categorised as 'A' matches. All 219 appearances made by Soh Chin Ann are recognised by football statistic organisations RSSSF and IFFHS, which both recognise Soh Chin Ann as the record holder for the most international caps.

The first men's footballer to play in 100 official international matches was Billy Wright of England in 1959, however the 100th match is disputed between FIFA and The Football Association. FIFA recognise the match against Italy in May 1959 as the official 100th cap, whereas the Football Association recognise the match prior against Scotland in April 1959 to be the 100th cap. This is due to FIFA not recognising the match against Argentina in May 1953 as official. Billy Wright would finish with 105 international caps.

Men's footballers with 100 or more international caps

Rank: The order of ranking with regards to international caps is in accordance with FIFA and their records. Records from other sources are not included in the official table, however, those from RSSSF whose cap totals are higher than those of FIFA are mentioned in the footnotes. Players who have achieved 100 or more international caps but are not recognised by FIFA are noted below the table.

Players: Players still active in their national teams are highlighted in bold. Player names are given in preference to their nationalities preference. For example: Icelandic players are sorted by first name, Brazilian, Portuguese, and Spanish players by nickname or first name (if more commonly used), and Chinese and Korean players by family name prefix. Players who have not been used in over two years since their last cap are no longer highlighted in bold. The player however may still be active and eligible for international selection.

Nation: Players represent a nation recognised by FIFA. These can be UN recognised countries, overseas territories or disputed states.

Confederation: Players & their nations are represented by 6 separate continental confederations within FIFA:

1. AFC: Asian Football Confederation
2. CAF: Confédération Africaine de Football (English: African Football Confederation)
3. CONCACAF: Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football
4. CONMEBOL: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol – (English: South American Football Confederation)
5. OFC: Oceania Football Confederation
6. UEFA: Union des Associations Européennes de Football – (English: Union of European Football Associations)

Debut: States the date in which the player made their first international appearance for their national team.

Latest: States the date in which the player made their last or most recent international appearance for their national team.

♣ List of men's footballers with 50 or more international goals

In total, 79 male footballers to date have scored at least 50 goals with their national team at senior level, according to FIFA documents, RSSSF and IFFHS statistics. Since October 2021, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has also been publishing an according list, but only of the top 10. Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal holds the all-time record with 128 international goals.

Brazil and Hungary hold the record of having the most players to have scored 50 or more international goals with four each. England, Iran, Iraq, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia and Thailand each have three players who have achieved the feat. The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) has the highest number of footballers who scored at least 50 international goals, with 32 players. Egypt is the only African team with more than one player who has scored at least 50 international goals, after Mohamed Salah achieved the feat on 24 March 2023.

Bader Al-Mutawa of Kuwait has played the most matches so far to score 50 international goals. He scored his 50th goal during his 155th international appearance, in a hat-trick against Myanmar on 3 September 2015, in a 2018 FIFA World Cup qualification match.

History

The first player to score 50 international goals was Imre Schlosser of Hungary. He achieved the feat when he scored a brace (two goals) in a 6–2 victory against Austria on 3 June 1917. In total, he scored 59 international goals in 68 matches, playing his last match on 10 April 1927. He remained the highest international goalscorer for 26 years, until his fellow countryman Ferenc Puskás broke the record in 1953. Puskás was the third player, after Poul Nielsen of Denmark, to achieve 50 goals in his international career. Nielsen achieved this feat on his 36th cap against Sweden in the 1924–28 Nordic Football Championship on 14 June 1925 and scored 52 goals in just 38 matches in his international career. Puskás netted his 50th goal on 24 July 1952, when he scored a brace in the semi-final match against Turkey at the 1952 Summer Olympics. However, Vivian Woodward scored 75 goals in 53 matches considered official internationals by the opposing sides, which would make him the first footballer to score 50 or more international goals, ahead of Imre Schlosser, and was the fastest to achieve the feat, scoring his 50th goal in his 32nd official international match, with a four-goal haul against Hungary on 31 May 1909.

Puskás overall scored 84 goals in his international career, and remained the highest international goalscorer for 24 years following his 84th goal in 1956 against Austria, until Mokhtar Dahari of Malaysia broke the record in the Merdeka Tournament after scoring his 85th goal on 27 October 1980 against Kuwait and he went on to score 89 goals for his country in 142 international appearances. In 2004, Ali Daei of Iran broke the record after scoring his 90th goal against Lebanon.

Daei also became the first player to score over 100 goals in international football, ending his career with 109 in total. His 100th goal came on 17 November 2004, when he scored a four-goal haul against Laos in a 2006 FIFA World Cup qualification match. However, the first player from Asia to reach 50 international goals was Malaya's Abdul Ghani Minhat. Furthermore, he was also the first player from outside Europe to achieve it. He achieved the feat on 15 December 1961 against Thailand and he went on to score 58 goals in 57 international appearances for his country which is 1.02 per match, making him one of the most prolific players in the world. Just two years after Puskás' scored his 50th goal, his teammate Sándor Kocsis did the same on 19 September 1954, in a friendly match against Romania. He became both the fourth player and the fourth European to achieve the feat. He went on to score a total of 75 goals in 65 matches in international football. Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal was the second player to score 100 international goals, as well as the first European to achieve the feat. He reached the milestone after scoring a brace against Sweden in the 2020–21 UEFA Nations League on 8 September 2020. Lionel Messi of Argentina became the third player to reach and pass the milestone in a friendly match against Curaçao on 28 March 2023, as well as the first South American to achieve the feat.

Pelé of Brazil was the first player from South America to score at least 50 international goals. He attained this in a friendly match against the Soviet Union on 21 November 1965, and went on to score 77 international goals in 92 matches. Malawi's Kinnah Phiri was the first player from Africa, and also the youngest player, to score 50 international goals. He scored his 50th goal in a friendly match against Sierra Leone on 6 July 1978, aged 23 years, 8 months and 6 days. Stern John of Trinidad and Tobago was the first player from North America to score 50 international goals. He scored 70 goals in 115 matches, with his 50th goal coming in a friendly match against the Dominican Republic on 13 June 2004.

♣ List of most goals in a season in all club competitions (50 or more goals)

This article details men's professional football club records and statistics (individual and collective) in Europe.

The records and stats look across all European clubs competing in the highest divisions and levels of European professional football, allowing for cross-competition comparison. Therefore, the coverage only considers for domestic competitions the top-division of the national league and its cups (national cup, league cup, super cup); for continental competitions, all UEFA club competitions including – although recognized but not organized by UEFA – the Fairs Cup as the predecessor to the UEFA Cup; and additionally, on an intercontinental scale, both the FIFA Club World Cup and its defunct predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup, which was endorsed by UEFA (Europe) and CONMEBOL (South America).

♣ List of footballers with 500 or more goals

In top-level association football competitions, 24 players have scored 500 or more goals over the course of their career in both club and international football, according to research by the IFFHS, first published in 2007. Taking into account competitions of all levels, 76 players have reached the milestone according to research by the RSSSF, an organisation described by German newspaper Der Spiegel as a "Wikipedia of football statistics". Hungarian Imre Schlosser was the first to reach the 500-goal mark, doing so in 1927 shortly before his retirement. Eight players have accomplished the feat at a single club, among them Josef Bican (Slavia Prague), Jimmy Jones (Glenavon), Jimmy McGrory (Celtic), Lionel Messi (Barcelona), Gerd Müller (Bayern Munich), Pelé (Santos), Fernando Peyroteo (Sporting CP), and Uwe Seeler (Hamburg). Of these eight, Messi scored the most, with 672 goals between his debut in 2004 and his departure in 2021.

FIFA, the international governing body of football, has never released a list detailing the highest goalscorers and does not keep official records; in 2020, it recognised Bican, an Austrian-Czech dual international who played between the 1930s and the 1950s, as the record scorer with an estimated 805 goals, although CNN, the BBC, France 24, and O Jogo all acknowledge that Bican's tally includes goals scored for reserve teams and in unofficial international matches. UEFA, the governing body for European football, ranks him as the leading all-time goalscorer in European top-flight leagues with 518 goals, narrowly ahead of Hungarian Ferenc Puskás. The RSSSF credits Bican with 948 goals, a tally which includes goals scored in winter tournaments, as well as when selected to represent regional and city teams, and the Football Association of the Czech Republic claims a total of 821. Spanish newspapers Marca and Sport state that both Bican and Pelé scored 762 goals. Such is the difficulty for statisticians and media outlets to determine which goals to include that the topic has spurred controversy; Bican once walked out of a gala held in his honour by the IFFHS after the organisation had excluded war-time goals from his tally, although it later recognised 229 goals he had scored during the period.

Media outlets around the world such as Sky Sports, ESPN, and Globo Esporte argue that, for Brazilian forward Pelé and players of his era, friendly matches were highly important fixtures and held more resonance, and the tallies accumulated should be included, while journalist Hugh McIlvanney once described them as mere "profit-making excursions" that bore little "relevance to Pelé's reality as a great player", and Jonathan Liew stated that many of the friendlies were "against up-country teams or down-at-heel invitational sides". When Argentinian forward Messi was reported to have broken the record for most goals for a single club (644 for Spanish club Barcelona), Pelé's former club Santos denied the claim, releasing a statement saying 448 of Pelé's goals scored in friendlies had been uncounted, and arguing that many of the goals came against "the best teams of all time", statements Pelé agreed with by publicly changing his overall tally to 1,283 on Instagram. When reporting the statistics of Messi, Barcelona argued that because Bican and Pelé, as well as Erwin Helmchen and Abe Lenstra, among others, scored the majority of their goals in leagues which were not played at a national level, their tallies should be questioned and potentially not counted, while goals scored during war-time, in lower-tiers and regional divisions, by players such as Bican, Ferenc Deák, Puskás, Seeler, Müller, Túlio Maravilha, and Robert Lewandowski, are also questioned.

In 2021, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo was reported to have broken the record when he scored his 760th goal, although it was widely acknowledged it was impossible to quantify with certainty as statistics from previous generations are often disputed, as highlighted by football journalist Jonathan Wilson and Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport's editor Ivan Zazzaroni, who recognised the possibility that German striker Helmchen had scored 981 goals. Ronaldo himself addressed the issue, saying that "the world has changed since then and football has changed as well, but this doesn't mean that we can just erase history according to our interests". There are other claims to the record; Guinness World Records credits Pelé as the scorer of the "most career goals", with 1,279, and Brazilian striker Romário celebrated scoring what he claimed was his 1,000th goal in 2007 but later admitted his tally included friendly matches; they are reported to have scored 767 and 772 goals, respectively, with Pelé's total including one goal for the military team and nine goals for the state team of São Paulo at the State Team Championship. The Encyclopædia Britannica notes that Brazilian Arthur Friedenreich is "officially recognised" by FIFA to have scored 1,329 goals, although there is little evidence for, and no documentation of, this claim. In March 2022, Ronaldo surpassed Bican's estimated tally of 805.

List

According to the IFFHS and other media outlets, 24 players are credited with scoring 500 or more goals in top-level professional football competitions:

♣ List of goalscoring goalkeepers

Goals scored by goalkeepers are a somewhat rare event in football. Goalkeepers spend the majority of a match in the penalty area of their own team, a marked area around the goal they are defending in which they can handle the ball, in order to defend their goal. It is highly unusual for a goalkeeper to move far beyond this area and join an attack, as this leaves the defence vulnerable to long-distance attempts until the goalkeeper can return to defend it.

The most prolific goalscoring goalkeepers are those who take penalties or free kicks. Other occasions where goalkeepers sometimes score include set pieces where a goalkeeper joins an attack when a team desperately needs a goal to win or prevent a defeat, or from goal kicks or otherwise regular clearances which travel the length of the pitch into the opposite goal. These types of instances are generally extremely rare and when they do happen it is generally considered a fluke or a stroke of luck rather than the intended consequence.

Records

The record for most goals scored by goalkeeper is held by the Brazilian Rogério Ceni, with 129 goals. He scored his 100th goal in a 3–0 win for São Paulo on 4 August 2011.

In addition to having the second most goals (67), Paraguayan José Luis Chilavert has recorded the most goals scored in international matches (8), is only the second goalkeeper to score a hat-trick, and in 2000, while playing with Vélez Sarsfield, he and Argentine goalkeeper Roberto Bonano with River Plate both scored in the same Copa Mercosur match.

On 2 November 2013, Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begović scored a goal which was the fastest for a professional goalkeeper in football history (13 seconds).

On 27 April 1985, SV Darmstadt 98 goalkeeper Wilhelm Huxhorn broke the record for the longest goal in football history (103 metres / 112.6 yards), in a match against Fortuna Köln. However, the longest goal to have been officially recorded in the Guinness World Records was scored by Tom King of Newport County, on 19 January 2021 against Cheltenham Town. The goal was confirmed to be 96.01 metres (105 yd) long.

List

The following list comprises goalkeepers who have scored in a professional national or international competition. The following table does not include goalkeepers' goals in friendly matches with clubs, nor does it include amateur or youth matches.

♣ List of one-club men in association football

A one-club man is a sportsman who has played his entire professional career with only one club. The term is often used in the context of team sports such as football or rugby. Players must have been at their club for a minimum of ten years in order to be included here. Loan spells at other teams disqualify players from being counted in the list. Only seasons with appearances in the senior first team are counted.

Retired players

Active players

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