Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two most prominent footballers currently and they have been dominating the game for the last two decades. Yet, there are miles away from achieving the 1000 score milestone. It’s definitely not easy to achieve.
Ronaldo and Messi are rivals as they both are one of the contemporary greatest footballers in the world. The Portuguese superstar is even known as the top goalscorer of all time with most goals. But they are far from the 1000 goals mark with Ronaldo having scored 819 goals and Messi having 797 goals in his entire career. Their junior level goals are not included.
If not the “Greatest of all time“, then who is that great Footballer with over 1000 goals? Messi and Ronaldo are only 200 goals away from achieving the milestone but they are also getting older. Messi had already announced that he will shortly retire from Argentina after playing a few games as a champion. Ronaldo is older than Messi though he has not declared any retirement statement yet.
Who had over 1000 goals in football?
The all time king of football, the one and only Josef Bican. The former Czech player has the most goals in football history. He is on the top of the list of five footballers with 1000 goals but he is not the only one with over 1000. The greatest legends of football including Pele, Gerd Muller, and Frenz Binder also have scored over 1000 goals in their career. Let’s take a look at these five GOATs.
1. Josef Bican
With a score of 1468, the Czech footballer is top goalscorer of all time. Josef Bican is known for his ability to score equally with both feet. Born in a poor Czech family, Bican carved his path from the hobby of playing street Football to become such a great name in football history. Bican was multi-talented as he topped all the positions he played.
Even the marvellous star received a “Golden Ball” for being the greatest goalscorer of that from the International Federation of Football Historians and Staticians. Including the friendly games and reserve matches, he scored a total of 1468 goals in 918 appearances which sets a quite good rate for him.
Some spectators are not ready to get over the fact the Josef Bican is way too better than Pele at goal scoring. Even if we cancel out the score of friendly and reserve matches, Bican still remains the top goalscorer of that century with 805 goals in 530 matches as per RSSSF’s report. His tremendous scoring ability cannot be questioned as he witnessed the best goal-to-game ratio.
Comparing their league records, Bican still scored more goals (over 600) than Romario (546), Pele (538) and Puskas (517). Bican always enjoyed a prolific career filled with glory and success. His pace is as spectacular as his scoring ability. He would have been considered the world’s best if he was born a little later.
2. Gerd Muller
The Bayern Munich Footballer Gerd Muller has scored 1461 goals in his career with clubs and country. Beginning with the 1965-1966 season, Bayern Munich was always a part of the Bundesliga and not any lower level league. The opener season of Munich saw the emergence of their greatest goal scorer Muller.
Since then, Muller has scored 512 goals in a total of 572 appearances over 14 seasons with Munich. His goal scoring rate at Munich is 0.90 per match. Broadly, Muller’s scoring rate continued to drop day by day as he scored 451 goals in 470 appearances over 11 years at Munich. It was converted into 0.96 goals per match. While in 1972, he outscored the matches with 85 goals in 60 matches making it 1.42 goals per match. Later in the 1972-73 season, he scored 67 goals in 49 appearances (1.37 goals per match).
Muller witnessed a level of goal scoring that could be matched by only a few Football legends in history such as Pele, Cristiano Ronaldo, Puskas, Messi and Eusebio. Some people argue that he couldn’t have reached here if the friendlies and reserve matches were excluded. But that’s not true.
Just like Pele, if we add friendlies and reserve to report Muller’s goal tally, he has 1461 goals in 1216 appearances. It has to be admitted that Muller is better at goal scoring than Pele. Muller was not just the scoring tiger in the club but also had an uncompetitive score at international level.
3. Artur Friedenreich
It may come as a shock for several people to see Artur Friedenreich here as one of the top goalscorers with over 1200 goals. Your surprise is obvious as he came out as an unpredictable player who invented the curve kick with the ball regardless of wearing such tough and heavy boots.
Out of nowhere, he turned out to be a footballer with fine and unpredictable feints and his quick movements controlling the ball in the slightest way. His movements were easy, swift and minimal and it confused the opponent players, taking advantage of which he played his stunts. This is why some people consider him the Greatest player of all time instead of Pele.
However, Friedenreich never appeared in a FIFA World Cup. He missed his only chance to play in the 1930 FIFA World Cup due to the conflict between states of Brazil. There was a serious misunderstanding between Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo where Friedenreich lived. As a result of which Arthur Friedenreich was not taken by Brazil to the tournament and only the players of Rio de Janeiro flew.
At that time, the strong Brazilian was 38 and close to the end of his career. If he could have played in the World Cup, his tally of goals would be more. Yet, the world witnessed his demise in 1969 while he bid his last goodbye to the people. But he is not forgotten, he is alive in our memories and his name is written in history.
4. Pele
Pele is widely known as a King of football whose heir is considered Messi. BHe was born is the country with the most wins in the World Cup, Brazil. The great grand soccer player Pele has a record of 1281 goals while he scored his 1000th professional goal in a match against Vasco da Gama in Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro.
Undoubtedly, Pele is one of the greatest footballers in football history. He enjoyed an illustrious career in which he won three World Cup Championships. Pele is his nickname that he acquired during his childhood. He was a renowned teenage player in Sao Paulo state of Brazil. As a teenager, he played for a local league club in his town while he kicked off his career with Santos Football Club as a left forward.
Known for his speed, balance, power, control and a god gifted ability to outthink his opponent’s movements and strategies. His height added to his advantage in the field. At the age of 17, he led the Brazil National Team to the World Cup and ended up winning the tournament with two major goals over Sweden. Brazil won its three out of five World Cups under Pele’s guidance in 1958, 1962 and 1970.
On November 19, 1969, the whole world celebrated his 1000th goal against Vasco da Gama. Over the years, Pele scored 1282 goals in 1363 matches in his career. Pele also received the International Peace Award and National Soccer Hall of Fame in 1978 and 1993, respectively.
On October 1, 1977, Pele played the last game of his career in Giants Stadium against his old Football club Santos. After retirement, he went on to become International ambassador for his own sport and joined the United Nations and UNICEF to bring revolutionary changes in the well being of people and maintain peace around the globe.
5. Franz Binder
Being the fifth on this list, Franz Binder has scored a total of 1006 goals, achieving the milestone. Binder is fortunately one of the few players to ever cross 1000 in their career. He has a average of 1.33 goals per game which can be counted as an unofficial world record. He played a total of 756 Matches in his long career.
He incredibly possesses a strong legacy in both Austria and Germany. Many of the current generation players worship him as an idol. His influence on people and future players was cherished. Binder’s skills and tremendous scoring ability made him so popular that Stefan Binder who plays with SSV Jahn Regensburg is nicknamed Bimbo, only because of the influence of Franz Binder.
