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The third best of all time
23 Jul. 2018.
The IFFHS, the International Association of Football Historians and Statisticians, has produced a new list of the sport's top goalscorers which places Pelé at the top and Ferenc Puskás behind him in 3rd.
Pelé leads the list of names courtesy of his 541 goals, while Ferenc Puskás is above Romario in third place with 511. There are plenty of other Hungarian players on the list with Imre Schlosser and Gyula Zsengellér also in the top ten.
Name Leagues Matches Period Goals
1. Pelé Brazil/USA 560 1957-1977 541
2. Josef Bican Austria/Czechoslovakia 341 1931-1955 518
3. Ferenc Puskás Hungary/Spain 533 1943-1966 511
4. Romário Brazil/Netherlands/Spain/Australia 612 1985-2007 489
5. Dinamite Brazil/Spain 758 1971-1992 470
6. Imre Schlosser Hungary/Austria 318 1905-1928 417
7. Gyula Zsengellér Hungary/Italy/Colombia 394 1935-1952 416
8. Jimmy McGrory Scotland 408 1922-1938 410
9. Zico Brazil/Italy/Japan 596 1971-1994 406
10. Gerd Müller Germany/USA 507 1965-1981 405
12. Ferenc Szusza Hungary 462 1940-1961 393
19. József Takács Hungary 355 1920-1940 360
22. Dr György Sárosi Hungary 383 1930-1948 351
48. Gyula Szilágyi Hungary 390 1943-1960 313
49. Ferenc Bene Hungary/Finland 456 1961-1982 313
54. Ferenc Deák Hungary 238 1944-1954 305
62. Sándor Kocsis Hungary/Switzerland/Spain 335 1945-1965 294
65. László Fazekas Hungary/Belgium 519 1965-1984 290
77. Géza Toldi Hungary 324 1928-1946 271
The IFFHS had previously published a list which featured Ferenc Puskás in first position with no place near the top for Pelé or Josep Bican, on the basis that in Brazil there was no official national championship before 1971, so Pelé only scored 71 goals in the top tier and rather 471 goals in the Campaneato Paulista State Championship. Similarly, a good amount of Bican's goals were scored outside the top tier of a recognised national championship, even though is goal-to-match ratio of 1.52 is undoubtedly phenomenal.
The two superstars of the 21st century don't feature on the 20th century list but will surely do so on the all-time list, Cristiano Ronaldo having scored 571 goals and Lionel Messi 557 goals as of April 2018 with their careers still very much in progress.
As of April 2018, still leads the international goalscorers list with 84 goals in 85 matches and remains the only player to have scored a goal in the finals of the World Cup, Olympic Games, European Cup and Inter-Continental Cup (now the World Club Cup). The IFFHS is the same organisation which declared Puskás the greatest goalscorer of the 20th century.
In our photo: The founder of the IFFHS, Alfredo Pöge, and Ferenc Puskás with the award given by the IFFHS in 1998 (photo: IFFHS).
