IFFHS WORLD'S BEST TOP GOAL SCORERS 2011 TO 2020
Posted on Jan 22, 2021 | Best GoalScorer Category
IFFHS World’s Best Top Goal Scorers 2011 to 2020 (year by year)
Cristiano Ronaldo 4 times winner!
Cristiano Ronaldo was The World’s Best Top Goal Scorer 4 times during the Decade 2011-20 (in 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015) and Lionel Messi did it twice (2012, 2016).
No one of them managed to win it in last 4 years of decade when the distinction was deserved by Harry Kane (2017), Baghdad Bounedjah (2018), Abderrazak Hamdallah (2019), Robert Lewandowski (2020).
However, the Portuguese and the Argentine were clear dominants of the decade; each of them was almost ever presented in top 3 (see the table below).
Cristiano Ronaldo got 4 first places, 3 second and 2 third (was beyond top 3 only in 2019). Messi got 2 first places, 5 second and 1 third (was beyond top 3 in 2013 and 2020).
The only one who appeared in top 3 more than once, apart from them, is Robert Lewandowski (third in 2015, second in 2019, first in 2020).
Cristiano Ronaldo won 3 IFFHS National Goal Scorer Awards and 5 IFFHS International Goal Scorer Awards.
In 2012, Messi scored phenomenal 91 goals (annual record of XXI century). Also, a distance between winner and runner-up was biggest at that year (28 goals).
2020 was the only year over the decade when no one of scorers reached 50-goal mark (Lewandowski won with only 47 goals); pandemic was clearly main reason of that setback.
The toughest competition happened in 2017 : 5 scorers finished with amount between 53 and 56 goals. Cristiano Ronaldo with 53 goals got 3rd place leaving Lewandowski and Cavani on 4th and 5th with same amount due to tiebreak criteria (more international goals).
By the away, it was unique case for the decade when a scorer (Cristiano Ronaldo) had in his tally more international goals (32) than domestic ones (21).
This Ranking considered all the Goals of the year (1.1 to 31.12) in national and international competitions. The IFFHS awarded only the World's Best National Goal Scorers and The World's Best International Goal Scorers since 1997.
RANKINGS IFFHS YEAR BY YEAR - THE WORLD'S BEST TOP GOAL SCORER
| Year | Player | Clubs | Country | Goals | Total | ||||||
| NL | NC | ICC | NT | ||||||||
| 2011 | 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 43 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 60 | ||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 31 | 9 | 15 | 4 | 59 | |||
| 3 | Aleksandrs Čekulajevs | Trans (Estonia) | Latvia | 46 | 10 | 56 | |||||
| 2012 | 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 59 | 7 | 13 | 12 | 91 | ||
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 40 | 5 | 13 | 5 | 63 | |||
| 3 | Neymar | Santos (Brazil) | Brazil | 34 | 9 | 12 | 55 | ||||
| 2013 | 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 38 | 6 | 15 | 10 | 69 | ||
| 2 | Ali Ashfaq | New Radiant (Maldives) | Maldives | 31 | 4 | 9 | 14 | 58 | |||
| 3 | Zlatan Ibrahimović | PSG (France) | Sweden | 27 | 2 | 9 | 9 | 47 | |||
| 2014 | 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 38 | 3 | 15 | 5 | 61 | ||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 35 | 5 | 10 | 8 | 58 | |||
| 3 | Jonathan Soriano | Salzburg (Austria) | Spain | 38 | 6 | 11 | 55 | ||||
| 2015 | 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 37 | 1 | 16 | 3 | 57 | ||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 34 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 52 | |||
| 3 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern (Germany) | Poland | 25 | 2 | 11 | 11 | 49 | |||
| 2016 | 1 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 32 | 6 | 13 | 7 | 58 | ||
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 31 | 11 | 13 | 55 | ||||
| 3 | Luis Suárez | Barcelona (Spain) | Uruguay | 37 | 6 | 5 | 3 | 51 | |||
| 2017 | 1 | Harry Kane | Tottenham (England) | England | 39 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 56 | ||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 40 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 54 | |||
| 3 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain) | Portugal | 19 | 2 | 21 | 11 | 53 | |||
| 2018 | 1 | Baghdad Bounedjah | Al Sadd (Qatar) | Algeria | 39 | 13 | 6 | 58 | |||
| 2 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 34 | 4 | 9 | 4 | 51 | |||
| 3 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Real Madrid (Spain), Juventus (Italy) | Portugal | 36 | 7 | 6 | 49 | ||||
| 2019 | 1 | Abderrazak Hamdallah | Al Nassr (Saudi Arabia) | Morocco | 35 | 18 | 4 | 57 | |||
| 2 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern (Germany) | Poland | 31 | 7 | 10 | 6 | 54 | |||
| 3 | Lionel Messi | Barcelona (Spain) | Argentina | 34 | 3 | 8 | 5 | 50 | |||
| 2020 | 1 | Robert Lewandowski | Bayern (Germany) | Poland | 32 | 5 | 8 | 2 | 47 | ||
| 2 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Juventus (Italy) | Portugal | 33 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 44 | |||
| 3 | Romelu Lukaku | Internazionale (Italy) | Belgium | 22 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 40 |
| All goals at top senior level are counted (top national divisions, national cups, official international club tournaments, official games between national teams). | |||||||||
| Brazilian state championships Paulista and Carioca have status equal to national leagues (according to IFFHS decision). | |||||||||
| Abbreviatures: | |||||||||
| NL – National League | |||||||||
| NC – National Cups | |||||||||
| ICC – International Club Competitions | |||||||||
| NT – National Team |