Which player has scored the most goals in El Clásico history? All time top scorers
Karim Benzema is the highest Clásico scorer in Sunday's game at 10th, but which players sit above him in the Barça vs Real Madrid goal-getters?
Real Madrid and Barcelona will lock horns once again in the Clásico this Sunday at the Bernabéu in what will be the 249th competitive meeting between the sides.
Real Madrid's march to the title has an air of inevitability to it: only Sevilla are in with a realistic chance of catching Carlo Ancelotti's leaders, with the two sides due to meet at the Sánchez Pizjuán next month. Still, Julen Lopetegui's Andalusians have 10 points to make up on Madrid, while Barça are 15 points adrift in third.
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Xavi has worked his magic at Camp Nou since his return to replace Ronald Koeman, guiding Barça into the Champions League places from the lower reaches of the table and securing a berth in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. Barça will not win LaLiga this season, that much is evident, but Xavi's side can certainly do Sevilla a favour on Sunday: the Catalans are on an unbeaten run of 11 games in all competitions and have scored four times in five of those.
Down through the years, several of history’s greatest goalscorers have played a starring role in the long-running Clásico drama, with the fixture’s all-time list of net fillers reading as a who’s who of footballing legends, and is unsurprisingly led by Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Overall after 248 games played, Real Madrid have scored 415 goals and claimed 100 victories, four more than Barcelona, who have scored 404 goals against their eternal rivals.
Clásico all-time top-scorers
Lionel Messi (Barcelona) – 26 goals
Lionel Messi, the only man in the top 10 that is still active in the Clásico, leads the table with 26 goals. Those 26 goals – 18 in LaLiga, 6 in the Spanish Super Cup, 2 in Europe – have come over the record total 44 fixtures that the Argentine striker has played since his first game against Real Madrid more than 15 years ago in November, 2005.
Although, surprisingly, it has been almost three years since the great Leo last scored against Los Blancos, in a 2-2 draw in LaLiga in May of 2018. He will hope to bring an end to that scoreless streak on Saturday to bring himself closer to the incredible 30-goal Clásico milestone – a milestone he may never reach, however, should he decide to leave Camp Nou this summer.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 18 goals
Much to the disappointment of Real and Barça fans alike, Cristiano Ronaldo no longer plays a part in this fixture and particularly in history’s greatest duel with Lionel Messi that lasted nine glorious seasons (somewhat coincidentally Messi has not scored since Ronaldo’s last Clásico before he left for Juventus in the summer of 2018).
During this time at Real Madrid, CR7 played in 29 Clásicos, netting 18 goals. Both he and Messi’s last Clásico goal both came in that 2-2 LaLiga fixture in May, 2018. He was never able to bag a hat-trick in the fixture, unlike Messi, who has two Clásico hat-tricks to his name.
Alfredo di Stefano (Real Madrid) – 18 goals
The stadium that was used over the last year or so as the Bernabéu was being revamped (Real Madrid’s training ground-based stadium used normally by Castilla and the underage sides) is named after this man for a reason. Arguably the club’s greatest legend, Alfredo di Stefano remains Madrid’s leading goalscorer in the history of the Clásico alongside Cristiano Ronaldo. Some onlookers would also point to the fact that the Spanish Super Cup - where Messi grabbed six - wasn't in existence before 1982.
Di Stefano himself was the subject of an intense battle between the two clubs, both of whom had claimed to own his registration due to confusion that emerged when the player moved from Colombian club Los Millionarios to Argentina’s River Plate. Acting as mediator, FIFA ruled that both clubs would share the player on alternate seasons. But the Argentine-born forward moved definitively to Madrid after the Barcelona interim board cancelled his contract following the forced resignation of its president at the time – a decision they probably lived to regret.
Raúl (Real Madrid) – 15 goals
Not far behind Di Stefano on the Bernabéu legend stakes, local Madrileño Raúl comes in fourth with 15 goals. The former Spanish international played in 37 Clásicos overall, his first coming in a 5-0 rout of the Catalans in January, 1995 (he didn’t score) and his last in a 2-0 defeat in April, 2010. Out of the top 10 all-time top scorers, he comes second behind Messi in number of appearances.
Clásico all-time top scorers: 5th to 10th
Behind Raul are three players on 14 goals: César (Barcelona, 1939-1955), Ferenc Puskas (Real Madrid, 1958-1966), and Francisco Gento (Real Madrid, 1953-1971).
Making up the rest of the top 10 are: Santillana with 12 goals (Real Madrid, 1971-1988), Luis Suárez with 11 goals (Barcelona, 2014-2020) and Hugo Sanchéz with 10 goals (Real Madrid, 1985-1992), the Mexican sharing 10th place with Juanito (Real Madrid, 1977-1987), Josep Samitier (Barcelona, 1919-1932) and the only active player in the top 10, Benzema