With the festive period over and the new year now lurking just around the corner, the race is now concluded to be crowned top scorer for club and country in 2025, and some big names were in contention for the plaudits once again.
The likes of Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, Bayern Munich’s Harry Kane and Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé were vying for supremacy after losing out to Viktor Gyökeres in 2024 as the now-Arsenal striker rattled through 62 goals in 63 games for Sporting CP and Sweden.
And, amazingly, heavyweight campaigners Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo fired their way back into the top 10 despite both being in the twilights of their respective careers. But who had the most goals this calendar year?
10. Jorge Rivera (Metropolitan FA/Puerto Rico): 40 goals in 35 games
It’s fair to say that Rivera has been on fire for Metropolitan in recent months, with the right-sided forward scoring 28 goals in 16 games since the Liga Puerto Rico moved into its 2025-26 Apertura phase.
9. Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr/Portugal): 41 goals in 46 games
Despite approaching his 41st birthday, Ronaldo has roared back into the top 10 after missing out on a spot in 2024.
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The Portugal veteran has scored eight goals in nine competitive appearances for his country this calendar year (including goals in the semifinals and final of the UEFA Nations League) while also maintaining an impressively high strike rate in the Saudi Pro League, where he is even still scoring overhead kicks!
8. Guilherme Bissoli (Buriram United/Brazil): 44 goals in 60 games
Former Sao Paulo and Cruzeiro striker Bissoli moved to the Thai first division with Buriram in October 2024 and he has already moved up to third on the club’s all-time top goal scorer list by scoring 80 goals in 61 games over the course of two seasons. The 27-year-old has since left Buriram to join Malaysian Super League side Negeri Sembilan ahead of the 2026 campaign.
7. Vangelis Pavlidis (Benfica/Greece): 45 goals in 73 games
After being crowned top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie following a stellar season with AZ Alkmaar in 2023-24, Pavlidis moved to Benfica the following summer and has continued to find the net with unerring regularity. The Greece international hit 30 goals in 57 games in all competitions in his debut season in Portugal and has already amassed 20 goals in 30 appearances for the Eagles so far this campaign.
6. Lionel Messi (Inter Miami/Argentina): 46 goals in 54 games
The old master is showing no signs of slowing down, at least when it comes to his prodigious creative productivity. Messi, 38, scored 43 goals in 49 games for Miami in 2025 and was unsurprisingly crowned season MVP on his way to winning the club’s first-ever MLS Cup title in front of a cacophonous home crowd in early December.
5. Victor Osimhen (Galatasaray/Nigeria): 46 goals in 52 games
Osimhen has proven to be one of the most prolific strikers in the world over the past few years, after coming to the fore as part of Napoli’s Scudetto-winning side of 2022-23. He has since moved on to Galatasaray where he has scored 49 goals in 57 games for the Turkish giants so far, winning both the Süper Lig and the Turkish Cup last season. The Nigeria striker has also scored nine goals in nine international games this year and recently opened his account at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations by finding the net against Tunisia.
4. Kevin Hernandez (Puerto Rico SSC/Puerto Rico): 48 goals in 37 games
While not an instant household name, it’s worth noting that Hernandez commands the highest goal-per-game ratio of any player in the top 10 this calendar year, with an incredibly consistent average of 1.30 goals every 90 minutes for club and country.
3. Erling Haaland (Manchester City/Norway): 57 goals in 55 games
Haaland has technically dropped a place in the rankings after finishing second in 2024 with his tally of 49 goals in 59 games for club and country. However, the formidable City striker has actually upped his output this year by virtue of scoring a goal every 1.04 games over the past 12 months. Haaland is currently top of the Premier League scoring chart with 19 goals in 18 games so far this season, and became the fastest player in history to reach 100 goals in the competition (taking just 104 games). Furthermore, the 25-year-old has also scored a phenomenal 17 goals in his last nine games for Norway.
2. Harry Kane (Bayern Munich/England) 60 goals in 65 games
Still as reliable as ever, Kane has climbed a place after finishing third in 2024, with 46 goals in 57 games. The Bayern striker is the joint-leading club goal scorer across all of Europe’s “Big Five” leagues so far this season (level with Haaland on 19 goals) and even scored a hat trick after coming off the bench against Stuttgart earlier this month. Furthermore, the 32-year-old has also scored nine goals in nine appearances for England in 2025.
1. Kylian Mbappé (Real Madrid/France) 66 goals in 67 games
Leaping up from the sixth spot in 2024 (39 goals in 61 games), Mbappé is top in 2025, having maintained an outstanding average of one goal every 0.99 games for club and country this calendar year. The France forward has upped his output to world-class levels for Real Madrid in 2025 (29 goals in 24 games so far this season), but still has little silverware to show for his efforts beyond the 2024 UEFA Super Cup. Only time will tell if he can convert his monstrous productivity into trophies at the Bernabéu.
