Former Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid stars are among the top non-penalty goalscorers of the 21st Century.
Of course, scoring a penalty is a skill in itself, but being able to score from open play is understandably deemed harder to do.
With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of the 10 players who have scored the most non-penalty goals in the 21st Century.
Note: When players are tied on the same number of goals, we’ve ordered them by their goal-to-game ratio.
10. Samuel Eto'o-378 Non-Penalty Goals
During his peak years at Barcelona and Inter Milan especially, Eto’o was a force to be reckoned with.
In total, the Cameroon forward scored 427 goals throughout his career, meaning that 88.5% of his strikes were non-penalty goals.
9. Sergio Aguero – 378 non-penalty goals
Thanks to his slightly superior goal-to-game ratio, Aguero ranks above Eto’o on this list despite having the exact same amount of non-penalty goals.
Had the Argentinean not been plagued by injuries throughout his peak years, we can’t help but think that he could’ve scored even more goals.
Still, 378 non-penalty goals in 786 career appearances isn’t a record to be sniffed at.
8. Edinson Cavani – 403 non-penalty goals
During his prime years at PSG, Cavani had to share penalty responsibilities with the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
While he did take a reasonable number of spot kicks throughout his career, the vast majority of his goals have come from open play.
Given he’s still scoring goals today for Boca Juniors, the 38-year-old could sneak up a few places on this list before he retires.
7. Edin Dzeko – 417 non-penalty goals
Is he the most underrated forward of his generation?
Like a fine wine, Dzeko has only improved with age and he’s still going strong today in Italy with Fiorentina.
When you consider he wasn’t the main penalty-taker during his time at Manchester City, Roma or Inter Milan, it’s no wonder that the vast majority of his career goals came from open play.
6. Karim Benzema – 456 non-penalty goals
During his time playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid, Benzema only took three penalties.
He did assume the responsibility from the spot after CR7 had left, but for the bulk of his career, the Frenchman never really got many opportunities from the spot.
However, his record from open play ranks him alongside some of the greatest players of the modern generation.
With 456 non-penalty goals in over 940 appearances, there can be no doubt that Benzema ranks among the best strikers of the 21st Century.
5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 488 non-penalty goals
Capable of scoring pretty much any type of goal, Ibrahimovic in his prime was a defender’s worst nightmare.
In total, 84.9% of Ibrahimovic’s career goals came from non-penalty situations, with the bulk of his goals coming in Ligue 1 and Serie A.
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4. Luis Suarez-537 Non-Penalty Goals
During his prime years at Barcelona, Suarez only got to take the occasional penalty as the likes of Lionel Messi and Neymar were also competing to take the spot-kicks.
Throughout his career so far, the 37-year-old has averaged 0.54 non-penalty goals per game which is a better record than anyone else below him on this list.
In 2024, he managed to score an impressive 25 non-penalty goals for Inter Miami.
3. Robert Lewandowski – 615 non-penalty goals
The 36-year-old is the only player on this entire list who is still going strong in one of Europe’s top five leagues today.
After bullying Bundesliga defences during his prime, he’s now spending his twilight years doing the same in La Liga.
Still producing the goods for Barcelona today, we reckon the Polish forward still has a few more years at the top level left in him yet.
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2. Cristiano Ronaldo – 763 non-penalty goals
Ronaldo has scored the most penalties of any player in the 21st century and has also scored the second most non-penalty goals.
Still scoring at the age of 40, CR7 isn’t showing any signs of slowing down soon.
2. Lionel Messi – 764 non-penalty goals
Messi beats his great rival to the top spot and it’s worth stressing that he has a superior non-penalty goal-per-game ratio than anyone else on this list.
Alongside being an elite playmaker, the Argentine magician has averaged a whopping 0.68 non-penalty goals per game. That’s some record.
