UEFA club competition leading scorers

Amid conflicting reports of who exactly is the all-time leading scorer in UEFA club competition, UEFA.com dusts off the history books to get to the bottom of it.

Strikers seldom need reminding how many goals they have scored. More renowned for his managerial qualities, Brian Clough would frequently tell anyone who asked – and many more who did not – about his impressive attacking exploits. For the record he scored 251 times in 274 appearances for Middlesbrough FC and Sunderland AFC, though few would escape without also hearing about his five goals for the English League against their Irish counterparts in 1951.

The same is true of this generation. Filippo Inzaghi took his tally to 70 goals in UEFA club competition with two in AC Milan's 2-2 draw with Real Madrid CF on Wednesday. They were his first strikes in European football in over a year but he knew exactly how to celebrate, running to the sidelines to collect a Rossoneri shirt emblazoned with his name and number: 70.

There was less certainty over whether or not Inzaghi was now alone at the top of the all-time scoring charts. We can confirm he is level with FC Schalke 04's Raúl González, whose winner for Real Madrid CF against CR Vasco de Gama in the 1998 European/South American Cup is included. Both Raúl (in 2000) and Inzaghi (2007) have also scored two in the FIFA Club World Cup, but those games were not under UEFA jurisdiction.

All-time top scorers in UEFA club competition
Filippo Inzaghi: 70 goals
UEFA Champions League: 50
UEFA Cup: 10
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 2
UEFA Super Cup: 1
UEFA Intertoto Cup: 7

Raúl González: 70 goals
UEFA Champions League: 68
UEFA Super Cup: 1
European/South American Cup: 1

Andriy Shevchenko: 64 goals
UEFA Champions League: 59
UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League: 4
UEFA Super Cup: 1

Ruud van Nistelrooy: 62 goals
UEFA Champions League: 60
UEFA Europa League: 2

Gerd Müller: 62 goals
European Champion Clubs' Cup¹: 34
UEFA Cup Winners' Cup: 20
UEFA Cup: 4
UEFA Super Cup: 3
European/South American Cup: 1

¹ Bayern's opener in their quarter-final second-leg victory at home to AFC Ajax on 21/03/73 is sometimes attributed to Müller. It was in fact recorded as a Ruud Krol own goal.
* Müller scored seven goals in the 1970/71 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, though that competition was not under the auspices of UEFA.