UEFA Champions League – top goalscorers per season

It is perhaps unsurprising that Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo dominate the list of top goalscorers per season in the UEFA Champions League. The long-term rivals finished as the joint-top scorer or top scorer outright in every year from the 2007/08 season, right the way through to 2018/19. It highlighted the pair’s domination over that period but it is Ronaldo, the top scorer in Champions League history, that boasts the more impressive record. He has finished as top scorer on seven occasions and holds the record for most goals in any single UCL campaign, scoring an astonishing 17 goals when at Real Madrid in the 2013/14 season.

Prior to that pair battling it out, Ruud van Nistelrooy was a real threat for Manchester United with the Dutch striker finishing as top scorer in three of the four years between 2001/02 and 2004/05 with his record of 12 goals in nine games in 2002/03 his standout campaign.

Raul (Real Madrid) is the only other man to finish as top scorer in multiple seasons alongside Andriy Shevchenko, the only player to feature on this list for two separate clubs. The Ukrainian scored eight times in 1998/99 for Dynamo Kyiv before bettering that with nine strikes in the 2005/06 campaign with AC Milan.