Fastest players to 50 Champions League goals: Haaland beats Messi, Ronaldo…
Erling Haaland has broken another Champions League record, becoming the fastest player in the competition’s history to score 50 goals.
The Norwegian robot boasts an incredible scoring record in the competition and is currently on track to retire as the outright top scorer in UCL history.
Here are the 10 players who reached 50 Champions League goals in the fewest number of matches.
10. Thomas Muller – 130 games
A two-time Champions League winner with Bayern Munich, Muller made a huge impact on the European stage.
While the German forward never scored double figures in a single UCL campaign, he constantly produced a handful of goals in most of his seasons with Bayern.
9. Thierry Henry – 103 games
Henry retired with exactly 50 Champions League goals to his name and in order to reach the 50-goal landmark, it took him 103 games.
He enjoyed his most prolific years in Europe playing for Arsenal, but didn’t get his hands on the trophy until he moved to Barcelona.
8. Raul – 97 games
Having won the Champions League on three separate occasions, Raul is one of the most decorated players in the competition’s history.
He enjoyed his most prolific campaign in the UCL during 1999-00, where he scored 10 goals in 15 appearances, inclucing a goal in the final against Valencia.
7. Cristiano Ronaldo – 91 games
While Ronaldo is the outright top scorer in the history of the Champions League with 140 goals, he wasn’t the quickest player to reach 5o goals.
Prior to transitioning into a goalscoring machine in his late twenties, Ronaldo was a dynamic winger who seemed more interested in doing flicks and tricks than finding the back of the net.
In his first 75 Champions League matches, he only scored 32 goals, averaging a strike every 194 minutes. Since that point, he scored 108 goals in his last 108 UCL games, scoring every 90.19 minutes on average.
His record of 140 goals in the competition could be broken in the near future, but there’s no doubt that CR7 will always be known as ‘Mr Champions League’.
6. Karim Benzema – 88 games
Like Ronaldo, Benzema has also won the Champions League trophy on five separate occasions.
However, his most iconic run in the competition was one of his last in 2021-22, where he scored 15 goals in 12 games to fire Real Madrid to the trophy.
In total, it took the Frenchman 88 games to reach the 50-goal landmark, a figure which has only been bettered by five players.
5. Kylian Mbappe – 79 games
Mbappe scored his 50th Champions League goal last season and it took him 79 matches to reach that milestone.
The Frenchman is one of only two players on this list to have never actually won the competition, but he still has plenty of time to do so.
After scoring a brace against Marseille in Real Madrid’s latest European clash, the 26-year-old looks like he means business this year.
4. Robert Lewandowski – 77 games
When it comes to goalscoring records, you’ll usually find Lewandowski’s name somewhere near the top of the list.
The Polish forward has been consistently scoring goals in Europe since 2011-12 and is still going strong today at the ripe old age of 37.
He’s currently one of only three players to have scored more than 100 goals in the history of the competition.
3. Lionel Messi – 66 games
The Argentine wizard scored 10 or more goals in five separate UCL campaigns and left Europe in 2023, having scored 129 goals in 163 games.
Messi was particularly prolific during his early years as it only took him 66 games to reach the 50-goal milestone, a record which has only been beaten by two players.
2. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 62 games
Up until very recently, Van Nistelrooy held the record as the fastest player to ever reach 50 goals in the Champions League.
The Dutch forward only needed 62 games to reach the landmark figure and his record has stood strong since 2007.
Despite retiring in 2012 as one of the competition’s top scorers of all time, the former Man United and Real Madrid star never managed to get his hands on the trophy.
1. Erling Haaland – 49 games
Not only has Haaland broken the record for the fewest games needed to reach 50 goals, but he’s absolutely obliterated the previous record.
Following his recent goal against Napoli, the 25-year-old made history with his scoring record and he’s now projected to break Ronaldo’s all-time record by the time he retires.
As things stand, Haaland is averaging a goal every 78.8 minutes in the UCL, which is utterly absurd.
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