The Champions League is the most prestigious football competition on the planet, and we can reveal the top players who have scored the most goals in this tournament. Originally known as the European Cup (and still referred to as this by many), the inaugural season took place in 1955/56 and quickly became the pinnacle of football on the continent, with the champions of each country competing.

The tournament was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992, which has since given way to the format we know today. Guaranteed group-stage fixtures have offered more opportunities for players of the modern era to score, elbowing most players of bygone eras out of the record books.

Throughout its near-70-year history, the competition has played host to some of the greatest teams, managers and players the sport has ever seen. Here are the most prolific scorers in Champions League history.

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15

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 49 goals

Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan, PSG, Man Utd

One of the greatest players never to win the Champions League, Zlatan Ibrahimovic did everything in his power to lift the big-eared trophy. The Swede’s first appearance in the competition – which he marked with a match-winning brace – came 19 years before his final outing. In the intervening two decades, Ibrahimovic turned out for seven different clubs, scoring for all but Manchester United in Europe’s premier club competition.

Zlatan never even made it to a Champions League final. The closest he ever came to continent glory was in 2010 when his Barcelona side lost 2-3 on aggregate to Inter Milan – the club that Ibrahimovic had left less than a year earlier. “I told him that if he wins the Champions League with Barcelona he won’t be doing anything extraordinary,” The Italian club’s boss, Jose Mourinho, said that summer. “I like doing something extraordinary, not what’s normal.” Mourinho lived up to his word and steered Inter to victory against Bayern Munich in the final.

14

Harry Kane – 50 goals

Tottenham, Bayern Munich

If Harry Kane had taken the leap from Tottenham sooner in his career, there’s no doubt he’d have hit the half-a-century mark much sooner. But with Vincent Kompany’s attack under the supervision of the scarily prolific Englishman now, he has them shooting towards continental glory, and he couldn’t be in better form than he is in Bavaria right now.

Last season, he finally ended a career-long wait for a league title as he fired Die Roten to a Bundesliga triumph. This term, it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone if he was pictured with the famous big-eared trophy in his grasp. The way he drags his club and country through ties at times means he would absolutely deserve it.

13

Filippo Inzaghi – 50 goals

AC Milan, Juventus

A true legend in Serie A folklore, the enigmatic goalscorer was one of the very best to ever do it for both AC Milan and Juventus – and, despite not getting the plaudits he so thoroughly deserves, Filippo Inzaghi was a sharpshooter of the highest order – as evidenced by his 50-goal haul in the Champions League.

The potent threat in front of goal emerged through the ranks of Atalanta, but it was his goal-frenzy periods for the aforementioned Italian duo that saw him rubbing shoulders with the stars on a pantheon of some of his nation’s greatest-ever footballers – especially from a goalscoring perspective.

12

Thierry Henry – 51 goals

Monaco, Arsenal, Barcelona

Thierry Henry rarely hit the heights in Europe that he did in the Premier League with Arsenal, where he was the undisputed best player in the league. This is shown in his less-than-a-goal every-two-game record for both the Gunners (35 in 77) and in the Champions League in general (50 in 112).

He played in two finals, both featuring Barcelona. In 2006, he captained and carried Arsenal to the showpiece in Paris, only to come up short late on to Ronaldinho and co. after Jens Lehmann had been sent off. Three years later, he was part of Pep Guardiola’s first winning side, who convincingly defeated Manchester United.

11

Mohamed Salah – 54 goals

Basel, Chelsea, Roma, Liverpool

Having struggled to fit in at Chelsea, Mohamed Salah‘s career at the top level of football – both domestically and on the European stage – looked all but done. The forward – monikered ‘The Egyptian King’ – failed to rest on his laurels and has forged a career that plenty would be happy with, becoming one of the highest-scoring players in Premier League history.

The majority of his strikes have come during his time spent in Merseyside with Liverpool, where he has won both the English top flight and Champions League under Jurgen Klopp’s watchful eye, before proving he can stay at the top for a long time yet under Arne Slot’s tutelage. Despite being a persistent subject of the ever-growing Salah-Eden Hazard debate, numbers do not lie – and his return in the Champions League, from his 96-game tenure, proves that he is one of the most ruthless frontmen to ply their trade in the competition.

10

Thomas Muller – 57 goals

Bayern Munich

Alongside Di Stefano, Thomas Muller is the only player on this list to score all his Champions League/European Cup goals for one side. His first for Bayern Munich came in 2009 as he became a key player in Louis Van Gaal’s squad that made the 2009/10 final, only to lose to Jose Mourinho’s Inter.

Three more finals have since come for the German – a heart-breaking penalty kick loss in 2012 to Chelsea (Muller had opened the scoring in a home final for the Bavarian giants), and then wins in 2013 and 2020 against Borussia Dortmund and PSG respectively. Some of Muller’s goals may look a little fortuitous, but always being in the right place is no fluke. As the playmaker once said: “Getting lucky all the time is a sign of quality.”

9

Erling Haaland – 57 goals

RB Salzburg, Dortmund, Man City

In a world where AI has taken over all walks of life, some big questions have been asked about just how human Erling Haaland really is. His current record in Europe’s premier competition reads an astonishing 57 goals in just one more appearance, which is a rate that boggles the mind.

The towering Norwegian may not be too involved with other phases of play, but there isn’t a more reliable poacher than Haaland, who seems to be in the right place, at the right time, and every time for Pep Guardiola’s side. He seemed to be the finish piece to the jigsaw puzzle when he won a treble with Manchester City in the 2022/23 campaign, helping the Cityzens finally earn their maiden crown in the competition.

8

Andriy Shevchenko – 59 goals

Dynamo Kyiv, AC Milan, Chelsea

Andriy Shevchenko announced himself to the wider world as one of the best strikers of his era with a hat-trick for Dynamo Kyiv at Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium in the 1997/98 Champions League. For many players, that would be the highlight of their career, but Shevchenko’s talismanic manager, Valeriy Lobanovskyi, saw it as “just the beginning”. “You’re reaching a level that only a few ever attain,” he told the then-21-year-old. “Don’t stop. Don’t ever be satisfied.”

A proud disciple of Lobanovskyi’s transformative methodology, Shevchenko adhered to every word uttered by a manager he called “a genius. A visionary. A subversive, perpetually on the trail of perfection”. When the Ukrainian icon won the Champions League with AC Milan in 2003, he took the trophy to the bronze statue of Lobanovskyi which was constructed in Kyiv shortly after his passing one year earlier.

7

Ruud van Nistelrooy – 60 goals

PSV, Manchester United, Real Madrid

Ruud van Nistelrooy never won the Champions League or even reached a final. The closest he came was a semi in his first season with Manchester United, losing to Bayer Leverkusen by the finest of margins before UEFA scrapped the away goals rule. Van Nistelrooy’s lack of European silverware was not for want of endeavour, effort or excellence, as he won the Champions League Golden Boot in three of his five seasons at Old Trafford (2001/02, 2002/03, 2004/05).

The Dutch poacher’s 35 goals in 43 Champions League appearances for United makes him their top scorer in Europe’s premier competition. Respectable tallies of eight in 11 for PSV and 13 in 19 for Real Madrid either side of his spell in England showed his enduring brilliance.

6

Kylian Mbappe – 68 goals

Monaco, PSG, Real Madrid

When Kylian Mbappe was 15, his class was tasked with sketching up a mock magazine front cover. The ambitious Frenchman plastered his own face across Time magazine beneath the headline: “El Maestro”. Four years later, Mbappe found himself in the current publication.

The jet-footed forward announced himself as a rising star with his standout performances for Monaco during the 2016/17 season, securing the Ligue 1 title and reaching the Champions League semi-finals. At just 18 years old, Mbappe made a nine-figure move to Paris Saint-Germain, where his goal tally in Europe’s premier competition continued to soar. However, the elusive continental trophy remains out of reach.

His switch to Real Madrid was undoubtedly driven by ambitions of European glory. He has been scintillating in the Spanish capital, and now spearheads an attack that also includes Vinicius Jr, which has seen him move very quickly through this ranking.