Hungarian great Imre Schlosser was the first footballer to score 500 career goals.
A prolific forward for Ferencváros and MTK Hungária in the early 1900s, Schlosser won 13 Hungarian titles and netted over 400 league goals.
Also the first footballer to score 50 international goals, he finished his career with over 500 in total, although the exact number is disputed.
Since Schlosser, quite a few footballers have scored in excess of 500 career goals. Here, a look at some of the most high-profile players to reach that mark...
16. Zico
A legend at Flamengo and one of Brazil's best-ever players, Zico was nicknamed "White Pelé" following his emergence in the early 1970s.
Zico played for Brazil between 1976 and 1986, scoring 48 goals in 71 appearances. At club level, the attacking midfielder spent most of his career at Flamengo across two spells, also playing for Udinese and ending up with Kashima Antlers in Japan. In total, he scored just over 500 goals for club and country, with 101 of those coming from direct free-kicks.
15. Hugo Sánchez
A prolific striker with a penchant for acrobatic finishes, Hugo Sánchez was La Liga top scorer no less than five times in the late 1980s – once with Atlético Madrid and on another four occasions at Real Madrid.
In total, Sánchez scored 208 times for Los Blancos and registered close to 500 goals in his club career, with 29 in 58 appearances for Mexico's national team as well.
14. Roberto Dinamite
A legend at Vasco da Gama, Roberto Dinamite was immortalised as the Rio de Janeiro club unveiled a bronze statue of the former Brazil striker in 2022.
Either side of a short stint at Barcelona, Dinamite had two long spells at Vasco and the majority of his almost 500 career goals came with the Rio club. He also netted 20 times in 38 caps for Brazil.
13. Alfredo Di Stéfano
Although best remembered for his long and successful spell at Real Madrid between 1953 and 1964, Alfredo Di Stéfano was also a prolific scorer for River Plate and Millonarios earlier in his career.
Di Stéfano, who had spells with Huracán and Espanyol and represented both Argentina and Spain, scored over 500 career goals in club and international football combined.
12. Uwe Seeler
A prolific scorer for Hamburg and West Germany in the 1950s and 1960s, Uwe Seeler netted 490 goals for HSV between 1954 and 1972.
Part of the West Germany squad which reached the final of the 1966 World Cup, Seeler scored 43 goals in 72 games for his national team.
11. Fernando Peyroteo
Born in Portuguese Angola, Fernando Peyroteo moved to Lisbon at the age of 19 and signed for his beloved Sporting Clube de Portugal.
Peyroteo spent his entire career with Sporting and went on to set a series of goalscoring records, netting over 550 times for the Lions and the Portuguese national team between 1937 and 1949.
10. Luis Suárez
Luis Suárez began his career in 2005 and the former Ajax, Barcelona and Liverpool striker had scored over 580 career goals by November 2024.
Suárez is Uruguay's all-time top scorer with 69 goals and has also had spells at Nacional (twice), Groningen, Grêmio, Atlético Madrid and Inter Miami.
9. Abe Lenstra
A legend of Dutch football in the 1940s and 1950s, Abe Lenstra put hometown club Heerenveen on the map with over 400 goals for the Super Frisians in a long spell.
Lenstra scored 33 goals in 47 appearances for the Netherlands and is considered one of the nation's greatest-ever players. In total, he netted over 600 goals in a career spanning more than two decades.
8. Gerd Müller
One of the greatest goalscorers of all time and a legend of German football, Gerd Müller netted a record 565 times for the Bundesliga giants.
With 68 goals in just 62 games for West Germany, Müller was the nation's all-time top scorer until he was overtaken by Miroslav Klose in 2014. His goal ratio remains far superior, though, and he netted over 630 times in an incredible career.
7. Robert Lewandowski
In November 2024, Robert Lewandowski became only the third player to reach 100 Champions League goals, joining Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in an exclusive club after scoring twice for Barcelona against Brest.
Lewandowski scored 103 goals for Borussia Dortmund, 344 with Bayern Munich and has been on target over 80 times with Poland. In total, he is closing in on 700 career strikes, with over 670 on the board as of November 2024.
6. Josef Bican
A legendary forward who represented both Austria and Czechoslovakia at international level, Josef Bican was one of the finest footballers in the world in a long career which spanned from the 1930s to the early 1950s.
Recognised by the International Federation of Football Historians and Statisticians (IFFHS) as the greatest goalscorer of the 20th Century in club football, Bican scored 722 career goals in total.
5. Ferenc Puskás
One of the few footballers to have scored a hat-trick in a major European final and the only man to have done it twice, Ferenc Puskás was one of the sport's biggest legends in the 1950s and 1960s.
Puskás struck over 700 goals in his career, including 84 for Hungary and 242 for Real Madrid, where he won three European Cups.
4. Romário
Romário played into his early 40s and the Brazilian great claims to have scored over 1,000 career goals.
However, many of those came in friendlies and youth matches, with the official figure understood to be just over 750, which is still extremely impressive.
3. Pelé
Pelé is recognised by Guinness World Records as having scored 1,279 goals in a glittering career, but the official number is somewhat lower.
Not including friendlies and exhibition matches, the legendary three-time World Cup winner netted around 750 times, including 77 in 92 games for Brazil.
2. Lionel Messi
Barcelona's all-time top scorer with 672 goals, Lionel Messi has also netted over 100 times for Argentina.
The World Cup winner is one of just three players to have scored over 100 times in the Champions League and reached 850 career strikes in November 2024.
1. Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list of scorers in the Champions League and in international football, with over 100 goals in each.
Also Real Madrid's all-time top scorer with 450 goals, the Portuguese superstar has over 900 in total and seems set to continue until he hits 1,000 for clubs and country. Incredible.
