Being the most watched competition across the European club football, we bring to you some exciting moment you have not been told about the UEFA Champions League goal records.
The UEFA Champions League football is one of the few competition that bring together clubs and fans from different European region.
As a football fans, you won’t ever want to miss the UEFA Champions League games due to the fact that it’s Europe most prestigious club competition.
With no doubt, it is the most exciting competition in the European football even more than the EURO.
Now, let’s look at some of the amazing UEFA Champions League goal scoring records you may not be aware of even as a die hard football fan.
Can you give answer to the below questions without surfing the web?
- Who scored the first ever Champions League goal
- Who has the most Champions League final goal
- Who scored the fastest ever Champions League hatrick
- Who is Champions League all time top goal scorer
I’m very sure only few football lovers and fans will be able to give answers to the above questions.
BUT, then let’s quickly get to brief you on the history of the competition.
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The UEFA Champions League is a yearly club football competition, founded in 1955 as European Champion Clubs’ Cup (known as European Cup)and organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA).
The competition was rebranded and gain its current name in 1992, adding a round-robin group stage in 1991 and allow multiple entrants from certain countries since 1997.
It is open and contested by champions of different European top-division leagues. The competition has five different stages to decide the winners of the competition.
The stages ranges from group stage to knock-out stages (Round of 16 – Quarter Finals – Semi Finals) all double legged then lastly a single legged Finals.
The winner of the Champions League automatically qualify for the following year’s Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.
The tournament having won by 22 different club since it’s history, Real Madrid is the most successful club winning the title a whopping 13 times.
While Bayern Munich remain the only club to have won the trophy on an unbeaten run, winning all their games to the final in 2019/20 season.
And Chelsea remaining the defending champion beating Manchester City a 1-0 in the last edition of 2020/21 season also defeating Villarreal to win the 2021 UEFA Super Cup Final in a penalty shootout.
Who scored the first ever UEFA Champions League goal
It is amazing to know that the first ever UEFA Champions League goal was scored by an African player, a Nigerian born player to be precise.
Former Nigeria player/legend, Daniel Amokachi (nicknamed “Black Bull” and “Black Train”) scored the first ever goal of the UEFA Champions League with Club Brugge on 25 November 1992, beating CSKA Moscow 1–0.
A goal which is said to bring the Nigerian international into limelight.
He said after the game – “My finest moment (at the club) would have to be my goal in the Champions League against CSKA Moscow. That goal brought me my fame, really, as it was the very first goal in the history of the Champions League,”.
NOTE: The above record does not include when the tournament was still called European Cup.
Who scored in the first ever European Cup/ Champions League Final
The first edition of the European Cup Final happens in 1955 between Real Madrid and Stade Reims which was played at Parc des Princes – Paris.
However, the match ended 4-3 in favour of Real Madrid as they came from behind to clitch the first edition of the European Cup Final.
With Reims Leblond scoring the first ever goal in the UEFA Champions League final. The goal came up just after 6 minutes into the game.
Goalscorers in the first ever European Cup Finals
Below are the goalscorers and time they scored in the first edition of the European Cup Finals in 1955.
- Leblond (Reims âš½ 6′)
- Templin (Reims âš½ 10′)
- Di Stéfano (Real Madrid âš½ 14′)
- Rial (Real Madrid âš½ 30′)
- Hidalgo (Reims âš½ 62′)
- Marquitos (Real Madrid âš½ 67′)
- Rial (Real Madrid âš½ 79′)
Fastest Ever Champions League goal
Bayern Munich forward Roy Makaay shock Real Madrid in 2007 to score the fastest goal in Champions League history, netting after just 10.12 seconds in a game.
The fastest ever UEFA Champions League/ European Cup hat-trick
Suprisingly, the record for the quickest Champions League hat-trick goal is not held by Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi but an uncommon name in the man of Bafetimbi Gomis.
Gomis currently hold the quickest hat-trick in the history of the UEFA Champions League/ European Cup scoring three goals for Lyon against Dinamo Zagreb on December 7, 2011 within the space of 7 minutes.
The record was previously held by Mike Newell for 16 years. Though Newell still hold the record for the quickest perfect hat-trick in Champions League history.
Other Champions League Hat-trick records
- The youngest scorer of a hat-trick was Raúl, who scored a hat-trick for Real Madrid against Ferencváros, aged 18 years and 114 days, on 18 October 1995.
- Rooney is the youngest debut scorer of a hat-trick, aged 18 years and 340 days, when he scored for Manchester United against Fenerbahçe on 28 September 2004.
- The oldest scorer of a hat-trick is Giroud, who was 34 years and 63 days old when he scored for Chelsea four times against Sevilla on 2 December 2020.
Players with the most goals in the Champions League Finals
Below goes the list of players who have scored the most goals in the European Cup/ UEFA Champions League Finals throughout their career.
- 7 Alfredo Di Stéfano (Real Madrid)
- 7 Ferenc Puskás (Real Madrid)
- 4 Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United/Real Madrid)
- 3 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
- 3 Eusébio (Benfica)
- 3 Sandro Mazzola (Inter Milan)
- 3 Gerd Müller (Bayern München)
- 3 Héctor Rial (Real Madrid)
- 3 Pierino Prati (AC Milan)
- 3 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid)
Most goals in a single European Cup/ UEFA Champions League Final
- 4 Ferenc Puskás (Real Madrid v Eintracht Frankfurt, 18/05/1960)
- 2 Gareth Bale (Real Madrid 3-1 Liverpool, 26/05/2018)
- 2 Hernán Crespo (AC Milan 3-3aet Liverpool, Liverpool win 3-2 on pens, 25/05/2005)
- 2 Filippo Inzaghi (AC Milan 2-1 Liverpool, 23/05/2007)
- 2 Daniele Massaro (AC Milan 4-0 Barcelona, 18/05/1994)
- 2 Diego Milito (Bayern 0-2 Inter Milan, 22/05/2010)
- 2 Karl-Heinz Riedle (Borussia Dortmund 3-1 Juventus, 28/05/1997)
- 2 Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus 1-4 Real Madrid, 03/06/2017)
All-time UEFA Champions League Top Scorers
We highlight the all time Champions League top scorer below both from the European Cup era and UEFA Champions League.
Players in bold indicate active players who are featuring in the current 2021/22 UEFA Champions League.
Players with the asteric (*) indicate player from the European Cup era.
| Rank | Players | Goals | Club(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 136 | Manchester United (17) Real Madrid (105) Juventus (14) |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 121 | Barcelona (120) Paris Saint-Germain (1) |
| 3 | Robert Lewandowski | 77 | Borussia Dortmund (17) Bayern Munich (60) |
| 4 | Karim Benzema | 72 | Lyon (12) Real Madrid (60) |
| 5 | Raúl González | 71 | Real Madrid (66) Schalke 04 (5) |
| 6 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | 56 | PSV Eindhoven (8) Manchester United (35) Real Madrid (13) |
| 7 | Thierry Henry | 50 | Monaco (7) Arsenal (35) Barcelona (8) |
| 8 | Alfredo Di Stéfano * | 49 | Real Madrid |
| Thomas Müller | 49 | Bayern Munich | |
| 10 | Andriy Shevchenko | 48 | Dynamo Kyiv (15) Milan (29) Chelsea (4) |
| Zlatan Ibrahimović | 48 | Ajax (6) Juventus (3) Inter Milan (6) Barcelona (4) Milan (9) Paris Saint-Germain (20) | |
| 12 | Eusébio * | 46 | Benfica |
| Filippo Inzaghi | 46 | Juventus (17) Milan (29) | |
| 14 | Didier Drogba | 44 | Marseille (5) Chelsea (36) Galatasaray (3) |
| 15 | Alessandro Del Piero | 42 | Juventus |
| 16 | Neymar | 41 | Barcelona (21) Paris Saint-Germain (20) |
| Sergio Agüero | 41 | Atlético Madrid (5) Manchester City (36) | |
| 18 | Ferenc Puskás * | 36 | Budapest Honvéd (1) Real Madrid (35) |
| 19 | Edinson Cavani | 35 | Napoli (5) Paris Saint-Germain (30) |
| 20 | Gerd Müller * | 34 | Bayern Munich |