Who are the top goal scorers in Olympic soccer?

Soccer is one of the sporting disciplines that has featured in practically every edition of the Olympic Games. Only on two occasions did the event not take place - in the inaugural Games in Athens in 1896 and in Los Angeles 1932 when soccer was removed from the program for two reasons.

Firstly, as it was feared it might take away some of the limelight away from FIFA’s new tournament, the World Cup and secondly because soccer was not a commonly practiced sport in the United States at the time (the USNMT did manage to field teams in three previous editions: St. Louis 1904, Paris 1924 and Amsterdam 1928).

While the men’s soccer event started first but the player who holds the all-time record for goals scored during the Olympics did so in the women’s event which was introduced at the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Brazil’s Cristiane, Olympic goals record holder

Cristiane Rozeira de Souza Silva or just Cristiane as she is known has scored more goals than any other player in Olympic history. She tops the ranking with 14 goals scored in four different edition of the Games (Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016).

After failing to get on the scoresheet in either of Brazil’s opening group games at the Athens Games, Cristiane made up for it with a hat trick in the 7-0 demolition of the tournament hosts. He complimented that with a brace against Mexico in the quarter finals but Brazil were left with the silver medal, falling to the USWNT in the final and Cristiane finished her debut Olympics on five goals.

In Beijing she posted another hat trick, as Brazil walloped Nigeria 4-1 and once again followed it up with a brace against Germany in the semis but had to settle for silver again as the USWNT prevailed in the final.

London 2012 was her least productive in terms of goals - just two, against Cameroon and New Zealand as Brazil crashed out to Japan in the quarter finals.

Cristiane capped her last Games, on home turf, by equalling then taking the record. She scored the team’s third goal in the opening group game against China to take her personal tally to 13, then set the record in the next game - a 5-1 win over Sweden, with a cheeky backheel.

In Paris, her record is under threat from the mercurial Marta, who only needs one goal to pull level. Christane has not been included in Arthur Elias’ Olympic squad.

Nielsen and Fuchs share the all-time Men’s Olympic goals record

The sport has evolved considerably since national teams were introduced to compete for the first time at the 1908 Games, and several of the Olympic records date from that period. For example, Danish centre-forward Sophus Nielsen bagged 10 goals in one game, taking just 76 minutes to race to double figures in the 17-1 win over France A (which remains the largest victory in Olympic history).

Gottfried Fuchs repeated the feat at the following Games when Germany thrashed Russia 16-0. Such big scorelines would be unheard of in the modern game. In fact, just two players from recent times appear in the Top 10 ranking - Carlos Tevez and Bebeto, who both scored a total of eight goals - the Argentinean scoring all of his in one edition (2004).

Nielsen’s 10 goals against France’s A team undoubtedly helped him to position himself as the player to have scored the most goals in Olympic history. He already had one goal to his name from the opening game against France B, and added to his tally with a brace against Norway during the 1912 Games.

Bene comes good for Hungary

He shares his record with Hungary’s Antal Dunai, who scored six goals at Mexico 68: he was on target in all of the team’s group games (El Salvador, Ghana and Israel) and fired home twice in the final as the Trikolór clinched their third Olympic gold.

Dunai went one better four years later at Munich 72, finishing with seven goals: a hat trick in the 5-0 win over Iran, one in the 2-2 draw with Brazil and three in the Second Round, finding the net against both East and West Germany and the hosts.

As for the other Olympic records, Hungary’s Ferenc Bene holds the record for the most goals scored by a player in a single Olympic tournament. He got off to a flying start at Tokyo 1964, scoring six in the opening group game against Morocco, one against Yugoslavia, four in the semi-final against the United Arab Republic and just for good measure, hit the winner in the final against Czechoslovakia.