The only 5 players in history with 100+ goals in two top European leagues
To score a hundred goals in one top European league is a special achievement. To do it in two is ridiculous, and one that only five players can boast.
The five major European leagues — the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1 — have been blessed with countless prolific goalscorers, but Harry Kane has now joined a very select group.
Here are the only five players to have scored over a hundred goals in more than one of Europe’s top five leagues.
Harry Kane
“Very proud, to be honest, to reach 100 goals in the Bundesliga,” Kane said after reaching the milestone for a second time.
“Obviously, I’ve done it in the Premier League, so now to have it in a different league is something I’m really proud of. All I can say is a big thanks to the team.”
After notching 213 goals in 320 Premier League appearances for Tottenham, the England captain notched his hundredth Bundesliga goal in just his 98th appearance, smashing the historic record in Germany’s top flight, while his record is the second-fastest route to the milestone across the top European leagues.
The fastest? Speak of the devil…
Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo needed just 94 matches to reach a century of La Liga goals after his world-record transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2009. Ridiculous.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner went on to score a total of 311 goals over the course of his nine seasons in the Spanish capital, averaging a better-than-one-goal-a-game average to sit behind his great rival Lionel Messi in La Liga’s all-time standings.
He wasn’t actually a member of the Premier League’s hundred club when he departed Manchester United, but he got there in the end, reaching a total of 103 after adding 19 in his second stint at Old Trafford.
Had Ronaldo decided to stick around for another season at Juventus, he might’ve got to a hundred goals in Serie A instead. He left Turin after scoring 81 league goals across three seasons in Italy.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic
A name you probably could’ve guessed.
Ibrahimovic scored bagfuls wherever he went. MLS, Eredivisie, Swedish Allsvenskan. Even his inauspicious stint at Barcelona ended with a respectable tally of 16 La Liga goals.
He didn’t spend long enough in Spain or England to get close to a hundred goals, but he came pretty close to treating his entire career like a side quest. Imagine if he spent time equally across Europe’s major leagues. Twenty years. Four seasons in each? Twenty-five goals a season? A big ask, admittedly, when you consider that not even Messi and Ronaldo reached 500 goals across Europe’s top five leagues.
Yet banging in goals for dominant forces was his bread and butter, so there’s a world where you can imagine him getting to a hundred in all five. The Champions League was another question.
As it was, he notched 113 Ligue 1 goals in 122 appearances for PSG, and 156 Serie A goals for Juventus, Inter and Milan.
Edinson Cavani
El Matador. Diet Zlatan?
A slightly more understated version of Ibrahimovic, perhaps, but Cavani was almost as prolific in Italy and France. He scored 138 Ligue 1 goals for PSG and 112 Serie A goals for Palermo and Napoli, making him the fifth and final member of this very exclusive club.
Gonzalo Higuain
Perhaps unfairly maligned, when you look at the numbers.
Higuain scored 107 La Liga goals for Real Madrid before moving to Italy, where he added 125 Serie A goals across spells with Napoli, Juventus and Milan. Whatever you make of his biggest moments, that is some serious output.
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