The Champions League is the biggest competition in club football. It is a chance for the world’s best to prove their calibre against the finest leagues and teams in Europe for the ultimate prize of ‘Old Big Ears’ come May or June every year.
As is the case with any competition, it is a marathon rather than a sprint, and Cristiano Ronaldo holds the record for most Champions League goals, with 141 in 183 appearances.
However, the way a club starts can often foretell their chances of glory at the end. This came to pass in the first season of the brand new league phase in 2024/25, with three of the top four clubs reaching the semi-finals.
With this in mind, Football FanCast takes a look at the top 12 goalscorers in the Champions League group stage/league phase.
Stats correct as of 14th May 2025.
Rank
Player
Goals
Lionel Messi
Cristiano Ronaldo
Robert Lewandowski
Karim Benzema
Raul
Ruud van Nistelrooy
Thierry Henry
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Mohamed Salah
Antoine Griezmann
Alessandro Del Piero
Erling Haaland
12 Erling Haaland 33 goals
The newest entrant to this list has wasted little time making a name for himself, with Erling Haaland racing into the record books thanks to his incredible knack for goals.
His first Champions League strikes came for RB Salzburg in the 2019/20 season, scoring a hat-trick on his group stage debut against Genk, before scoring five more in the four matches that followed.
Continuing his hot streak for Borussia Dortmund and Manchester City – with whom he won the competition in 2023 – Haaland has already become one of the competition’s best strikers, yet he’s barely 25. If there’s one challenger to the top scorers, it’s him.
11 Alessandro Del Piero 33 goals
Known as one of the great one-club legends, Alessandro Del Piero is another whose talent perhaps deserved more than the sole winners’ medal he earned in 1996. He always favoured loyalty over glory with Juventus, but his 33 goals in the group stages of the Champions League prove his devotion was bettered by his goal-getting instinct.
In the competition’s history, Del Piero is the highest-scoring Italian, with nine goals in the knockouts bringing his total to 42 on the continental stage.
10 Antoine Griezmann 34 goals
Antoine Griezmann may not have got his hands on the Champions League trophy, but his exploits for Atletico Madrid and Barcelona have ensured his place in the competition’s history.
The Frenchman came closest to the trophy in 2016, when his Atletico side were beaten on penalties by city rivals Real. Griezmann missed a penalty in normal time before Los Rojiblancos found an equaliser, though he made up for it somewhat by scoring in the shootout.
With a further nine goals outside of the group stage, he remains one of the best goalscorers that the Champions League has eluded in the modern era.
9 Mohamed Salah 35 goals
Mo Salah was pivotal to Liverpool’s sixth European triumph when his early penalty against Tottenham set Jurgen Klopp’s men on the way to victory in 2019.
On top of this, he has become the club’s top goalscorer in Europe, while across all UEFA club competitions, he holds the record for most goals scored for an English club, previously set by Thierry Henry in 2006.
In the Champions League, Salah has edged ahead of the likes of Sergio Aguero in the group stage, with his contributions for Basel, Roma and Liverpool making him a legend of the competition.
8 Zlatan Ibrahimovic 38 goals
Europe’s finest journeyman, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is known on and off the pitch for his confidence and distinctive maverick personality.
In front of goal, he was a monster, and from 38 group stage goals for seven different clubs, there weren’t too many that weren’t absolutely 10/10 spectacular.
Whether it be with his head, left foot, right foot, or through a volley, rocket, or a swerving, curling strike, Zlatan could score any type of goal from any angle or range.
7 Thierry Henry 38 goals
Also on 38 goals, Thierry Henry had a long and successful time playing in the Champions League.
Before Kylian Mbappe tore up the record books, the Arsenal Invincible was the youngest Frenchman to reach the 40-goal mark, while he remains the competition’s all-time second-highest goalscorer from France with half a century – second only to the marvellous Karim Benzema.
Henry crowned his fruit-bearing European adventure in 2009 when he lifted the trophy with Barcelona after brushing Manchester United aside in the final.
6 Ruud van Nistelrooy 50 goals
50 goals in the Champions League group stage is quite the jump from 38, especially since there were only six such games each year. But perhaps even more surprising is the fact that Ruud van Nistelrooy is the only Dutchman to make the top 12.
Despite the Oranje boasting a successful bloodline of special footballers, it is the striking endeavours of the Eindhoven product turned Man United and Real Madrid superstar that stand at the very top.
The Ruud Devil, however, is another who never lifted the famous trophy. But in 2001/02, 2002/03 and 2004/05, he finished as the competition’s top goalscorer.
Remarkably, he only ever scored six goals in the knockouts, but everything adds up to an impressive overall tally of 60 Champions League goals.
5 Raúl González 53 goals
Raúl is the highest-ranking Spanish player to feature and is one of his nation’s most decorated footballers.
Raúl became the first player to score 50 Champions League goals when he scored in a 2-1 group stage win over Olympiacos in September 2005 and was also the first to make 100 appearances in the competition. He was also the first player to score in two Champions League finals since the competition’s rebrand, notching in the finals of 2000 and 2002.
It is no surprise, then, to learn that the Spaniard is the fifth-highest goalscorer in the competition’s history, while he is joint-fifth in terms of winning the famous trophy thanks to three triumphs with Real Madrid – the benchmark football club on the continent.
4 Karim Benzema 56 goals
Somewhat overshadowed by Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, in his own right, is one of the greatest out-and-out strikers of all time.
He is France’s top goalscorer in European competition with 90 goals in 140 games, and he is the first in this ranking to have won both the Champions League (five times!) and the Ballon d’Or (2022).
3 Robert Lewandowski 71 goals
Robert Lewandowski’s entire career has been enmeshed in near-misses when it comes to silverware. He should have won the Ballon d’Or in 2020, robbed by a pandemic. Yet, his record proves he’s one of the greatest number 9s ever.
Nowadays, he aims for more glory with Barcelona, even in his mid-thirties. The Poland international will hope to add to his tally group stage goals in 2025/26.
Across all stages of the Champions League, Lewandowski has 105 goals – third in the overall ranking once more.