Highest Goalscorers: Over the years, the epic tussle between Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to be named the “best of all time” has been enthralling to watch.
There is a case to be made for both, as they have consistently been the best players in their generation, particularly in the last ten years. In reality, Messi or Ronaldo have won the Ballon d’Or nine times in the last ten seasons, with Luka Modric being the lone exception in 2018.
Since the start of the 2012/13 season, the duo has topped the charts of the leading goal scorers in the top five European leagues.
Here, Futballnews takes a look at the Top 10 European Goalscorers of the last decade, a list that includes Ronaldo and Messi.
Lionel Messi (311)
Despite not being in his finest form since joining Ligue 1 giants PSG, Lionel Messi is at the top of our list. Messi has taken on a slightly different, more deep role in the French capital than he did at Barcelona when he cemented himself as one of the best.
Between 2012 and 2021, the 34-year-old scored 305 goals in just under 350 La Liga matches for Barcelona in over nine years. He is the only player to have won the Ballon d’Or seven times.
Cristiano Ronaldo (298)
Despite being 37 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal came in second on our list, being the 3rd Highest goalscorer in the Premier League last season behind Mohamed Salah and Heung min-Son.
In the summer of 2021, the forward returned to Old Trafford from Juventus, scoring 18 goals in 30 games in the Premier League.
Ronaldo’s phenomenal nine-year spell at Real Madrid, where he averaged more than a goal per game in La Liga, striking 311 times in 296 games, will be remembered the most. He would go on to score nearly a hundred goals for Juventus, winning the Serie A Footballer of the Year award twice.
Robert Lewandowski (282)
Lewandowski is a player that could be on the move this summer, and is keen to move from Bayern Munich to Barcelona during the transfer season. After surpassing Gerd Muller as Bayern’s second-highest scorer, he is now the club’s second-highest scorer.
Lewandowski has 238 Bundesliga goals in 253 games since joining the club from Dortmund in 2014, roughly one per game.
The Poland international has won every award imaginable at Bayern, including the Champions League two seasons ago and an unprecedented eight Bundesliga titles. Since then, he’s been linked with a move to Barcelona, who are interested in signing the 33-year-old after he scored 50 goals in all competitions last season.
Luis Suarez (233)
Suarez won his ‘dream’ move to Barcelona following the 2014 World Cup after a great three-year tenure at Liverpool.
The Uruguayan forward scored 69 goals for the Reds in the league, but they were unable to win it. Suarez’s numbers increased at Barcelona, where he was part of a front three that included Neymar and Messi.
During his six-year stay at the Catalan giants, he won four La Liga titles, four Copa del Rey titles, and one Champions League title, scoring 198 goals in 283 appearances.
Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang (196)
The Gabonese international built a reputation for himself at Saint-Etienne, and after winning the Coupe de la Ligue in 2013, he moved to Borussia Dortmund for a large fee.
Aubameyang scored 98 Bundesliga goals in 144 games before joining Arsenal for a then-club-record sum in January 2018.
With 22 goals in his first full season at the Premier League club, he won the Golden Boot, and he continued to score for the Gunners, finishing with 68 Premier League goals.
Ciro Immobile (187)
Immobile, who joined Lazio from Borussia Dortmund in 2016, has been a wonderful servant to the club. He has four times won the Capocannoniere della Serie A (Golden Boot), the most recent being this season, when he scored 27 goals in 31 games.
Immobile has 187 goals in his career, having previously played for Torino, Borussia Dortmund, and Sevilla before joining Lazio.
Harry Kane (183)
Kane, one of the list’s youngest members, did not score his first Premier League goal until April 2014, when he scored in a 5-1 victory over Sunderland.
Despite Spurs’ failure to win their respective competitions, Kane continued to score for fun, becoming the only player since Alan Shearer to score over 20 league goals in four consecutive seasons.
The England Talisman presently ranks sixth all-time in Premier League strikes with 183.
Edinson Cavani (179)
Cavani, a seasoned forward, will depart Manchester United this summer when his contract expires. The 35-year-old underlined why he is regarded as one of Europe’s most clinical strikers during the first of his two seasons with the club. In 2020/21, he scored 17 goals in 39 appearances across all competitions.
Cavani scored 138 goals in 200 games in Ligue 1 before joining PSG.
Karim Benzema (175)
Due to Benzema’s excellent form, the Ballon d’Or may not be given to one of Messi or Ronaldo for the first time since 2007. Last season, the 34-year-old scored 44 goals in 46 games to help Real Madrid win the Champions League, defeating PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City, and Liverpool along the way.
Benzema, on the other hand, has put in impressive numbers over the last decade, scoring 175 times in 309 La Liga outings.
Romelu Lukaku (168)
Last but not least, the Chelsea striker is on the move. The Belgium international made his name while on loan at West Bromwich Albion in 2012, rapidly establishing himself as one of the league’s most dangerous forwards.
Lukaku then moved on to Everton on a permanent basis two years later, before spending time at Manchester United.
With 113 goals in 240 games, he became a member of the division’s ‘100 club.’ Lukaku returned to Chelsea last summer after a two-year spell with Inter Milan, during which he won the Serie A title.
However, he has been out of form since then, scoring only eight goals in the league.
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