There’s no place for Pele, Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, but Celtic legend Jimmy McGrory makes the cut.
Sometimes described as the ‘currency of football’, the importance of scoring goals in football is obvious. That is why goal scoring forward players often command the biggest fees, the most wages and why truly great strikers are few and far between.
A record of a goal every other game is generally considered as an excellent strike rate for a striker. Former greats such as Raul, Michael Owen and Didier Drogba all had poorer than 1:2 goal-to-game ratios.
That is a mark of just how incredible some of the goals per game statistics in this article are, which range from 0.93 goals per game, right up to an eye-watering 1.95 goals per game.
Legendary strikers Just Fontaine and Pelé
In this article, what we mean by ‘prolific’ is the players goals per game. That is to say, the number of goals they scored, divided by the number of games they played.
So as to keep this sensible, only players who played top flight football are included, and only league goals and international goals are taken into account. This avoids the confusion often associated with the likes of Pele and Romario with regards to which competitions ought to be counted.
Below are the top 10 most prolific goal scorers of all-time, accompanied by the number of goals each player scored on average, per game, throughout the course of their career.
Honourable Mentions
Lionel Messi and Cristian Ronaldo both miss out
Some surprising players miss out on the top 10. Pele, regarded by many as the greatest footballer of all-time, would rank 11th, with a record of 0.92 goals per game. German and Swedish greats Gerd Muller and Gunnar Nordahl also come mightily close, whilst modern day superstars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi miss out, with records of 0.69 and 0.79 goals per game respectively.
10. Eusebio – 0.93 goals per game
Nicknamed the ‘Black Panther’, Eusebio was a wonderfully complete forward. Both an athlete and a technician, he was ruthless in front of goal. Born in Mozambique, Eusebio spent the best 15 years of his career at Benfica, and represented Portugal at international level. He scored a total of 424 league goals in addition to 41 international goals, including the 9 which saw him win the 1966 World Cup Golden Boot.
9. Just Fontaine – 0.95 goals per game
Thirteen goals at a single World Cup is a record which is highly unlikely to ever be beaten. That was the record set by Just Fontaine at the 1958 tournament in Sweden, the Frenchman only playing in fact due to a pre-tournament injury to his teammate. At club level, Fontaine had his best years at Reims, winning 3 league titles and scoring 122 goals in 135 games.
8. Ferenc Puskas – 0.97 goals per game
Ferenc Puskas at a book signing in 1997
Widely regarded as one of the finest attacking players to have ever lived, Ferenc Puskas was the poster boy of Hungary’s Magic Magyars. The left-footed striker renowned for his intelligence, technique and coolness in front of goal played for Budapest Honved and Real Madrid at club level. The scorer of 699 goals in total across his career, Puskas had almost a 1:1 goals to game ratio.
7. Jimmy McGrory – 0.99 goals per game
Celtic legend Jimmy McGrory is the only British player to make the top 10. Nicknamed the ‘Human Torpedo’, McGrory represented Scotland, Celtic and Clydebank during the 1920’s and 30’s. The holder of the most goals, most goals in a season and most hat-trick’s records at Celtic Park, McGrory scored 408 goals in 408 league games, and 6 goals in 7 caps for Scotland.
6. Bernabe Ferreyra – 1.00 goals per game
Lionel Messi may have missed out, but Argentina don’t go without recognition in the top 10. Bernabe Ferreyra didn’t just set the world record fee for a footballer when he joined River Plate in 1932, he more than doubled the previous record which had stood for 4 years. In league and international games combined, Ferreyra scored a total of 232 goals in 232 games.
5. Franz Binder – 1.08 goals per game
Into the top 5 and those select few players with a better than 1:1 goals to game ratio, and first up is Austrian great Franz Binder. The 6 foot 3 inch centre-forward played only for Rapid Wien at club level, but represented both Austria and Germany at international level. He had a better than 1:1 ratio for both Rapid Wien and Germany, managing a slightly less impressive 16 goals in 19 games for the Austrian national team.
4. Imre Schlosser – 1.22 goals per game
The second Hungarian to make the top 10, Imre Schlosser was the first great Hungarian footballing icon, preceding the Golden Team which would follow around a decade after his retirement. A seven-time Hungarian league top scorer and four time European top scorer, Schlosser scored 417 goals in 320 games for five different clubs and 59 goals in 68 games for Hungary.
3. Josef Biscan – 1.44 goals per game
Awarded the “Golden Ball”, recognising him as the greatest goal scorer of the last century by the IFFHS, Josef Bican was a phenomonon in Austria and the Czech Republic. A world class sprinter for his era, capable of running the 100 metres in 10.8 seconds, Bican reportedly scored more than 800 goals in all competitions.
We can only count his league and international ones though, which still add up to well in advance of 600 strikes, and an average of 1.44 goals a game.
2. Fernando Peyroteo – 1.58 goals per game
Fernando Peyroteo also handed Eusebio his debut
Often ranked as the most prolific goal scorer to have ever lived, but as you can see here that is not quite the case, Fernando Peyroteo was a relentless scorer. He spent his entire club career at Sporting CP, scoring 332 goals in 197 games, as well as bagging 14 goals in 20 caps for Portugal.
The Portuguese league was not among the strongest in Europe at this time, but Peyroteo’s statistics are so impressive that one cannot dismiss them. Retiring at 31 ensured his stats would remain at incredible levels, and he went on to become the national team manager, handing Eusebio his debut for Portugal in 1961.
1. Mario de Castro – 1.95 goals per game
Brazilian goal getter Mario de Castro officially has the greatest goal scoring record in the history of the game. He scored exactly 195 goals in 100 games, all for Atletico Mineiro, where he was part of an exceptional attacking trio nicknamed the ‘Trio Maldito’.
Playing for Atletico Mineiro alongside studying medicine at university, in the end, Castro retired at the age of just 26, when one of Atletico’s directors shot an opposition supporter. Outraged, de Castro refused to play for the club again, and practiced medicine for the next 22 years. The deadly striker was also the first player to be called up to the Brazilian national team from outside the Rio-Sao Paulo axis, but refused the call-up when informed he was only to be the teams second choice forward.
Read more on Mario de Castro and the Trio Maldito here.
IFFHS Goal Scorer of the Century – Josef Bican
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
