As of September 2024, Harry Kane was England's all time top goal scorer, with 68 goals in total. Kane is also the all time top scorer for Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur.

In the English Premier League, the Golden Boot is awarded to the player(s) who scores the most league goals throughout the season. Since the 1888/89 season, the year of the first top flight season in English football, 109 different individuals have been named "top goal scorer" over 126 seasons. In 2022/23, the Golden Boot was won by Manchester City's Erling Haaland, who scored 36 goals in his debut season to set a new all-time record for the Premier League. Haaland repeated this feat in the following season, with 27 goals, even though he missed almost two months of action due to injury. Premier League records Current records are generally given in the context of the past three decades, as the total number of games was reduced from 42 to 38 per season in 1995 (in the Premier League's fourth season). In the Premier League era, Thierry Henry has won the Golden Boot more times than anybody else, winning this accolade four times in five seasons with Arsenal. Alan Shearer, who won three consecutive Golden Boots in the 90s, is the Premier League's all-time top goal scorer, with 260 goals. Interestingly, Wayne Rooney, who is the Premier League's second-highest goal scorer of all time, never won a Golden Boot. All-time records Outside the Premier League era, Jimmy Greaves has been the top scorer in England more times than any other player, appearing at the top of the list six times between 1958 and 1969, during his career with Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspurs. Derby County's Steve Bloomer finished five seasons as the league's top scorer between 1895 and 1904. The highest ever tally in a single season was sixty goals, which was scored by Everton's Dixie Dean in the 1927/28 season. Greaves, Bloomer, and Dean are also the three top goalscorers of all time in the English league, with 357, 314 and 310 goals respectively. Players from Tottenham have been named top scorer more than players from any other club, appearing 13 times on this list. 19 different nationalities are represented here, and although the vast majority of players are English, there were 16 times where the top scorer in the First Division was Scottish. A much wider variety of nationalities has been represented in recent years, including in the 2018/19 season where it was shared between three players from different African nations.

As of September 18, 2024, Harry Kane had scored more goals in the UEFA Champions League than any other English player, with a total of 33. Meanwhile, Wayne Rooney scored 30 Champions League goals during his career.

England captain, Harry Kane, won the Golden Boot at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, having scored a total of six goals. Three of the Tottenham Hotspur striker’s goals came in England's 6-1 defeat of Panama in the group stages. His final goal of the tournament came in England’s round of 16 game against Colombia where he opened the scoring from the penalty spot. England went on to win that game on penalties but were eventually knocked out by Croatia in the semi-finals.

World Cup hotshotsHarry Kane was the first England player to win the Golden Boot at the World Cup since Gary Lineker at the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. In that tournament, England were knocked out in the quarter-finals by eventual champions, Argentina, captained by Diego Maradona. Somewhat surprisingly, the Argentinian legend does not feature in the top 20 leading goalscorers at the World Cup. Alone at the top of this list is Germany’s Miroslav Klose, who scored his sixteenth and record-breaking goal in Germany's semi-final matchup with Brazil at the 2014 World Cup.

France take home the trophyThere were five players all joint second on the top goalscorer list in 2018. Unsurprisingly, two of those players, Antoine Griezmann and Kylian Mbappé, were part of the title-winning French squad. Indeed, both players got on the scoresheet in the final as France beat Croatia 4-2 to take home the trophy. With so much fire power in the French team, it is no wonder that the squad had a combined transfer value of almost 1.1 billion euros. Both Mbappé and Griezmann also made the top 10 list of most valuable players at the 2018 World Cup. Top of this list was Argentina’s Lionel Messi, with a market value of approximately 180 million euros.

As of August 2022, Vivianne Miedema was the leading goal scorer in the FA Women's Super League, with 74 goals scored in total. She is followed by former Manchester City forward Ellen White, who left a significant impact on women's football in England after helping its national team win the UEFA Women's EURO in 2022.

As of July 2022, Ellen White was the leading goal scorer for the England women's national football team, with 52 goals in total. The former striker was able to lift the women's EURO for the first time in 2022. Fara Williams, England's most-capped player of all time, scored 40 goals for the Lionesses.

As of February 3, 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo was the all-time leading goalscorer for the Portuguese men's football team. With 135 goals to his name, Ronaldo rests at the top of the leaderboard, having scored more than 2.5 times the number of goals registered by second placed Pauleta and third placed Eusébio. Cristiano Ronaldo's legacy Few athletes can claim to rival Cristiano Ronaldo's football career. Having already won numerous trophies in England, Spain, and Italy, the Portuguese forward is the highest paid soccer player worldwide following his signing by Saudi Arabian football club Al-Nassr. Although Al-Nassr does not compete in the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo's legacy as the player with the most goals in the tournament will continue. Portuguese men's national soccer team As of September 2024, the Portuguese men's national soccer team were in eighth position globally according to FIFA's ranking. In 2024, A Seleção Portuguesa boasted several players with a net worth above 50 million euros in their line-up, with the most valuable player being Rafael Leão. Leão, who plays at club level for the Serie A side AC Milan, was also amongst the most expensive players at the FIFA World Cup held in Qatar in 2022.

The European Championships (EURO) 2020 were postponed by one year as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and took place in 11 different nations across Europe from June 11 to July 11, 2021. Cristiano Ronaldo and Patrick Schick both scored five goals in the tournament.

Jonny Wilkinson holds the record for most points scored at the Rugby World Cup (RWC) for the English national rugby team with 277 points. He is trailing far ahead, as the next highest point scorer at the RWC for England is Owen Farrell with 101 points.

Wayne Rooney tops the list of all-time goal-scorers for Manchester United, having scored 253 times in 559 appearances for the club. In second place is legendary player, Sir Bobby Charlton, who scored 249 times in 758 appearances. These appearances put him second in the list of all-time games played for the Red Devils. At the top of this list is Welshman Ryan Giggs, who played 963 times for United between 1991 and 2016.

Premier League giants Manchester United are currently the record title winners in the English top flight, having won the division a total of 20 times since 1888. Most of these wins came after the inception of the Premier League at the start of the 1992/93 season under the leadership of manager Sir Alex Ferguson. Indeed, United’s most recent title came in the 2012/13 season, which was Ferguson’s final season of management before his retirement. Since United's last Premier League title, local rivals Manchester City have lifted the trophy on multiple occasions, most recently in the 2022/23 season.

Cup successes Based on their success on the pitch, Manchester United have cemented themselves as one of the biggest club teams in the world. Alongside their success in the league, they have won the FA Cup 12 times, only two behind record winners, Arsenal. Their titles also reach beyond British shores as they have won the European Cup on three occasions, most recently in 2008. However, the undisputed kings of the Champions League are Real Madrid, who have taken home the trophy on 14 occasions, including four out of five times between 2013 and 2018.

As of March 2023, Harry Kane was Tottenham Hotspur's all time top scorer, with a total of 271 goals. The England forward's record-breaking goal came in a 1-0 win against Manchester City in early 2023. Meanwhile, FIFA World Cup winner Jimmy Greaves ranked second, with a total of 266 goals.

The European Championships (EURO) 2020 were postponed by one year as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and took place in 11 different nations across Europe from June 11 to July 11, 2021. Italy and Spain were the joint highest scoring nations in the tournament, having both bagged a total of 13 goals. Italy were ultimately crowned champions of Europe for the second time in the nation's history after beating England on penalties in the final.

In 2023/24, Erling Haaland won the race for the Premier League Golden Boot, with 27 goals. In the previous season, Haaland broke the record for the most goals scored in a single Premier League season, with 36.

As of April 2023, Ferenc Puskás all-time leading goal scorer of the national football team of Hungary with a total of 84 goals scored internationally. Second is Sandor Kocsis with 75 goals scored. The most attended game of all time of the Hungarian national team was way back during the 1954 World Cup against Scotland and had 113,146 attendees. The most attended match in 2021 had over 69 thousand attendees.

Sponsorship and Commercial revenues among the lowest   While average sponsorship and commercial revenues in the top division are above 60 million euros per club in England and Germany, they are among the lowest in Hungary with 3.6 million euros per club on average. A ranking of the national women’s football teams also reflects the relative low amount of financial resources available with Hungary’s team placing at the low end with a score of 1,537 compared to the U.S. team at first place with a score of 2,109.

Age is just a number   The average age of UEFA league football players in Hungary is 25.6 with the highest average among players being 27.1 (in Russia) and the lowest average being 23.6 (in Latvia). For UEFA league coaches the average age in Hungary is 49.3, here the highest average being 52.2 (in Czechia) and the lowest being 40.6 (in Northern Ireland).

Zlatan Ibrahimović is the all-time leading goal scorer of the national soccer team of Sweden with a total of 62 goals scored, followed by Sven Rydell with 43 goals. Currently signed as a striker for AC Milan, Zlatan Ibrahimović’s success in the game is not limited to the Swedish National team but also within club soccer. In the UEFA Champions League alone Ibrahimović has scored 49 goals, placing him high up in this European tournament's ranking of all-time top goal scorers.

Most valuable Swedish soccer players

While Zlatan Ibrahimović tops the list of all-time goal scorers of the Swedish national soccer team, Dejan Kulusevski ranked as Sweden's most valuable soccer player in July 2022. Having begun his senior career at Atalanta Bergamo Calcio, Kulusevski now plays for the English club Totteham Hotspur and in July 2022 had a market value of roughly 40 million euros. Following shortly behind Kulusevski in this list is the Real Sociedad centre forward, Alexander Isak, who at only 22 years of age had a market value of 30 million euros.

Sweden in the World Cup 

In a survey taken prior to World Cup 2018, close to half of the Swedish respondents stated they preferred a bar or restaurant to watch it, while the majority also stated they will watch with friends and family. Preferred devices for viewing the matches were a television or the internet, rather than mobile phones or tablets. The FIFA World Cup 2022 is taking place from November 21 to December 18 in the peninsular Arab nation of Qatar. But despite the popularity of soccer in Sweden, the national team did will not be playing in this tournament as they were ousted by the Polish soccer squat in a FIFA World Cup qualifying match on 29 March 2022.

As of 2023, the youngest goal scorer in Premier League history James Vaughan, who scored against Crystal Palace while playing for Everton in 2005. At the time, the English forward was 16 years and 270 days old.

As of March 24, 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo was the all-time leading goalscorer for the Portuguese men's football team. With 136 goals to his name, Ronaldo rests at the top of the leaderboard, having scored more than 2.5 times the number of goals registered by second placed Pauleta and third placed Eusébio. Cristiano Ronaldo's legacy Few athletes can claim to rival Cristiano Ronaldo's football career. Having already won numerous trophies in England, Spain, and Italy, the Portuguese forward is the highest paid soccer player worldwide following his signing by Saudi Arabian football club Al-Nassr. Although Al-Nassr does not compete in the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo's legacy as the player with the most goals in the tournament will continue. Portuguese men's national soccer team As of September 2024, the Portuguese men's national soccer team were in eighth position globally according to FIFA's ranking. In 2025, A Seleção Portuguesa boasted several players with a net worth above 50 million euros in their line-up, with the most valuable player being Rafael Leão. Leão, who plays at club level for the Serie A side AC Milan, was also amongst the most expensive players at the FIFA World Cup held in Qatar in 2022.

Miyazawa Hinata won the Women's World Cup Golden Boot in 2023, with a total of five goals. Japan was able to reach the tournament's quarter-final stage, yet lost out to Sweden. Meanwhile, the all-time goalscoring record was held by Marta.

As of June 2023, Cristiano Ronaldo held the record for the most goals scored in the UEFA Champions League (UCL), with a total of 141. The Portuguese forward played for Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus in the competition. Meanwhile, Argentinian forward Lionel Messi ranked in second place, with 129 goals.

What is the Champions League?

Established in 1955, the Champions League is the pinnacle of European club soccer, with teams from across the continent competing for the famous trophy. As of 2023, Real Madrid was the club with the most Champions League titles, having twice the titles of second-placed AC Milan. In 2001, the European governing body for soccer, UEFA, introduced the UEFA Women’s Champions League. As of 2023, Olympique Lyon was the club with the most UEFA Women's Champions League titles.

Europe’s Big Five leagues

The Champions League features a number of elite clubs, including those from the Big Five European soccer leagues. The Big Five consists of the top-tier leagues of England, France, Italy, Spain, and Germany. Altogether, the market size of the Big Five European soccer leagues amounted to more than 17 billion euros in the 2021/22 season. Individually, the English Premier League generated the most revenue out of the Big Five leagues in 2021/22, at over 6.4 billion euros.

As of February 2025, the quickest goal ever scored in the Premier League was Shane Long's opener against Watford in April 2019, coming in just 7.69 seconds. The second-fastest goal was scored by Philip Billing, who scored 9.11 seconds into AFC Bournemouth's match against Arsenal in March 2023.