Who scored the most goals in each of the last 25 Champions League tournaments?

While we start with not just a tie, but a three-way tie, ties are actually not common. Even over the course of only several games, one man tends to rise to the top. Not at the turn of the millennium, though. Instead, Porto’s Jardel, Barcelona’s Rivaldo, and Real Madrid’s Raul all had 10, with Raul’s 10th goal coming in his club’s 3-0 win in the final.

A three-way tie is quite rare, but so is scoring double-digit goals in a single tournament. Real missed out on the final this season, but Raul once again was top goalscorer. This time, though, he topped out at seven, with several players right behind him with six.

Fun fact: Manchester United used to be quite good at football. It’s true! Raul scored again in a final for Real Madrid, but he finished with six goals. Man U’s Dutch striker van Nistelrooy, meanwhile, potted 10 in a year nobody else had more than eight. It is worth noting this was back when there were two group stages. A team could play up to 17 games, though rarely did anybody play that much. For example, van Nistelrooy made 14 appearances.

You may have noticed we already have two repeat winners. Get used to that reality. Of course, each Champions League provided a different story, if not a fresh name. Take 2002-03, for example. Manchester United went out in the quarterfinals, but van Nistelrooy was on fire. He scored 12 goals, but those came in only nine games.

Monaco made a surprise run to the final in 2004, where it was smashed 3-0 by Jose Mourinho’s Porto club that helped turn the mercurial manager into the household name he would become, for better and worse. The French side made it there thanks to having the two top goalscorers in the tournament. Dado Prso had seven goals, but Morientes picked up nine of them. Morientes was actually on loan from Real Madrid this season, and was probably pleased to score twice in the quarterfinals to eliminate the Spanish club, as the two were not on the best terms at the time.

One last year atop the scoring table for van Nistelrooy, who had a few good seasons left ahead of him but never managed to be the top scorer in the Champions League again. In a way, van Nistelrooy deserves credit for scoring eight goals even though Manchester United was eliminated in the now-existent round of 16, which had replaced the second group stage. On the other hand, he potted four of his goals when United hosted Sparta Prague at Old Trafford.

For English football fans, Shevchenko is maybe remembered as the guy who flamed out at Chelsea, an all-time transfer flop. There’s a reason why he was so vaunted at the time, though. He won the Ballon d’Or in 2004. The Ballon d’Or! That was just before this, his last hurrah with AC Milan. Shevchenko scored nine goals in 12 games to beat the competition. The next thing that happened was the Ukrainian signing a then-record deal with Chelsea.

Kaka was actually teammates with Shevchenko at Milan, and he stuck around to help the club win the Champions League this season. Though the Brazilian was an attacking midfielder and not an out-and-out striker, he still had no problem finding the back of the net. Kaka scored 10 goals, and nobody else had more than six. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Kaka would take home the Ballon d’Or himself in 2007.

Alright, we’ll just give you a heads up. Get ready to see the same two names over and over for the next decade. We start with Ronaldo, who was still with Manchester United at the time. In a somewhat low-scoring tournament, Ronaldo led the way with eight goals. Of course, he also infamously missed a penalty against Chelsea in the final, but that didn’t keep United from winning.

Here is the second half of the goal-scoring duo you will be seeing plenty of. Maybe that’s how it should be. Messi and Ronaldo are two of the best footballers in history. For our money, Messi is the very best. He scored a goal in the final in 2009 to help give Barcelona the win. It was his ninth goal of the tournament, though nobody else had more than seven, so he didn’t need that goal for the title.

Hey, it’s Messi again. It’s notable that Ronaldo, now with Real Madrid, tied for second with seven goals. That’s notable because Real Madrid lost in the round of 16. Barcelona went out in the semifinals, losing to eventual champs Inter Milan, but Messi managed eight goals to eke past Ronaldo (and Ivica Olic).

Yes, it’s Messi for the third season in a row, but this was peak Messi. This was a high-scoring tournament. The two players tied for second, Mario Gomez and Samuel Eto’o, had eight goals. Messi, though? He scored 12 goals, a truly remarkable number for one Champions League campaign.

That’s right, Messi was the top goalscorer in four-straight Champions League. We didn’t say he’s our pick for the best of all-time for no reason. This was an exciting tournament and three guys hit double-digit goals. Ronaldo had 10. Gomez actually had 12. Messi got all the way to 14 goals. And yet, Barca lost in the semis.

After four years of playing second fiddle to Messi, Ronaldo had enough. Messi had eight goals, but Ronaldo made it all the way up to 12. Neither Spanish club represented by those two made the final, though. Instead, we got an all-German final between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich. That Dortmund squad was paced by a young Polish striker named Robert Lewandowski, who had 10 goals.

Ronaldo can be a bit of a goal poacher. He was never all that interested in playing defense. That being said, when in form, nobody has been able to score goals quite like the Portuguese superstar. During the 2013-14 Champions League, Ronaldo was definitely in form. He scored a staggering 17 goals, which remains a record.

Messi and Ronaldo decided to share the love. Not just with themselves, but with Neymar, a player who was really good but also never as good as people hoped he would be. All three of these guys scored 10 goals this season. Of course, Messi and Neymar did that while playing on the same Barcelona squad.

By this point, Ronaldo was basically maniacally focused on scoring goals, even when it was not to the benefit of his team. That didn’t stop Real Madrid from winning the title, because it was loaded with talent. Additionally, Ronaldo’s goal-scoring fervor paid off many times over. He scored 16 goals, which is the second-most ever in a single Champions League.

Real Madrid won again, and Ronaldo needed that this year. Messi scored 11 goals in this tournament, but Barcelona went out in the quarterfinals. In the final, Ronaldo scored twice against Juventus. Those two goals got him to 12, just pipping his longtime rival.

Remarkably, three different Liverpool players all scored 10 goals in this tournament. None of them could get near Ronaldo, though, who solidified his status as the greatest goalscorer in Champions League history. This is pretty indisputable. He has 140 goals in the tournament, and Messi is second with 129. His seven goal titles are one more than Messi as well, so this one was big for him. Ronaldo had 15 goals.

One last title for Messi as well, who aged better as a player than Ronaldo did. This year, Ronaldo was with Juventus, and he seemed to drop off a couple levels. Messi, though, was still going strong. He potted 12 goals, and nobody else had more than eight. For what it’s worth, Messi is barely above Ronaldo in a goals-per-game sense.

We mentioned Lewandowski earlier, and he finally got a chance to win a goal-scoring competition in the Champions League. While he is third all-time in goals in this tournament, he only has the one scoring title on account of playing so much of his career alongside Messi and Ronaldo. When noting that Lewandowski had 15 goals for Bayern Munich, it is important to note this was the COVID-19 tournament. That means the quarterfinals and semifinals were one leg, and not two legs.

It wouldn’t be surprising if Haaland ends up on the Messi-and-Ronaldo level, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Back when he was still with Borussia Dortmund, and he was all of 20 years old, Haaland scored 10 goals in what would prove to be a bit of a down year for scoring. Maybe we can blame the fallout of the pandemic for that. To be fair, Haaland’s 10 goals came for a team that went out in the quarterfinals.

Footballers finding the Fountain of Youth in their mid-thirties is rare, but Benzema’s story is wild on top of that. This is a guy who was excluded from the French national team for years because he tried to blackmail one of his teammates. So yeah, not the chillest dude. However, he kept at it at Real Madrid, got his game on track, and went on a tear in this Champions League. He would score 15 goals for an improbable goal title.

Finally, Manchester City won the Champions League, and having Haaland in the mix certainly helped. While Rodri scored the sole goal in the final, Haaland definitely helped them get there. The Norwegian scored 12 goals, with nobody else having more than eight.

We end like we began, with a tie. A tie between two guys whose teams went out in the semifinals at that. Kane had left Tottenham for Bayern Munich, and somehow still didn’t win a trophy. He did his best, though, scoring eight goals for the club in the Champions League (and a ton more in the Bundesliga). Mbappe also had eight goals, but he was in his last season with his club, PSG.