Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are good at football. Naturally, they’ve both made their respective marks on Champions League finals, but they’re not the only ones to do so.
Big game ballers are the best kind of footballers. The ones who show up when it really matters. The ones who looked at the history books and, instead of perusing them with reverence, scribbled their names all over the pages and tossed them aside.
We’re going back to the start of the European Cup, all the way up to the modern-day Champions League, and we can tell you that neither Lionel nor Cristiano take the top spot. In fact, Leo doesn’t even make the top five.
=6. Lionel Messi & 9 other players – 2 goals
Messi has scored twice in Champions League finals, which is more than almost every other footballer in the history of the competition, but nine others have equalled his feat. Leo did it against Manchester United in 2009 and 2011.
The Argentinian is joined on two final goals by (deep breath): Samuel Eto’o, Sergio Ramos, Pippo Inzaghi, Raul, Daniele Massaro, Mario Mandzukic, Hernan Crespo, Diego Milito, and Karl-Heinz Riedle.
=4. Gareth Bale – 3 goals
Wales’ favourite son, weirdly maligned by certain sections of the Real Madrid fanbase, always came in clutch for Los Blancos. At any other club, Gareth would probably have had a statue built outside of the stadium in his honour. So it goes.
Bale scored a header against city rivals Atletico Madrid in the 2014 final, and came off the bench to score a truly incredible overheard kick followed by a long-range blastie against Liverpool in 2018. Champions League royalty, is our Gareth.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name Real Madrid’s top 20 Champions League goalscorers?
=4. Eusebio – 3 goals
The legendary Portuguese striker scored twice for Benfica in the 1962 European Cup final against Real Madrid, which the Lisbon side went on to win 5-3. The third of his final goals came against Milan the following year, in a 2-1 defeat to the Italians.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name all 41 Englishmen to play in a Champions League final?
=4. Gerd Muller – 3 goals
Muller is goalscoring royalty, and the German also bagged three in European Cup finals for Bayern Munich. Two against Atletico in 1974, and another against Leeds the following year.
=4. Sandro Mazzola – 3 goals
Mazzola played inside-right in Helenio Herrera’s famous Inter side of the 1960s. The catenaccio merchants beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the 1964 final, with Mazzola scoring two of them. The Italian managed one more in the 1967 final vs the Lions of Lisbon, Jock Stein’s legendary Celtic side, as the Bhoys took the trophy back to Glasgow.
=4. Pierino Prati – 3 goals
In 1969, AC Milan faced off against an Ajax side featuring the great Johan Cruyff, managed by legendary proponent of Total Football Rinus Michels. Prati played left-wing for the Rossoneri in that European Cup final, and scored a hat-trick in a 4-1 victory for the Italians. Some boy.
=4. Hector Rial – 3 goals
Real Madrid’s Hector Rial scored a brace in the first ever European Cup final in 1956, in which Los Blancos defeated Reims 4-3. The Spaniard netted in the following year’s final too, in a 2-1 victory over Fiorentina at the Bernabeu.
3. Cristiano Ronaldo – 4 goals
Ronaldo is top of the Champions League goalscorers list, but only third when you take the European Cup into account to, which, frankly, you must.
Ronaldo scored in the 2008 final between Manchester United and Chelsea, which the Red Devils went on to win in extra-time. He also scored a last-minute penalty against Atletico in 2014, and a brace against Juventus in 2017, just before he joined the Bianconeri that same summer.
The Portuguese is nowhere near the top of this list, though, having been thoroughly outscored by two legends of the game.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every club Cristiano Ronaldo has scored against in the Champions League?
=1. Alfredo Di Stefano – 7 goals
Di Stefano is a true legend of European football. The Argentinian joined Real Madrid from Colombian club Millonarios in 1953, three years before the first European Cup final.
A goal in that inaugural 1956 European Cup final announced Di Stefano’s intentions to dominate the competition for the foreseeable future. He scored a goal in each of the first four finals, against Reims, Fiorentina, Milan, and then Reims again, before bagging a hat-trick in the 1960 final versus Frankfurt.
Seven goals in five consecutive European Cup finals is something we may never see again. Let’s see, eh?
=1. Ferenc Puskas – 7 goals
The bagsman of Budapest was a verified goal addict. Couldn’t kick the habit. Couldn’t not kick the ball into the goal. We’ve forced that joke a bit and it hasn’t worked but it’s staying in.
Puskas netted four for Real Madrid in that 1960 final against Frankfurt (Di Stefano scored the other three). The Hungarian then scored a hat-trick in the 1960 5-3 loss to Benfica. The only man ever to score (at least) a hat-trick in two European Cup finals. Legend.
