Goalkeepers are the least you expect to score a goal in a football match. In an ideal world, they hardly score because they not outfield players. Bearing this in mind, it may be somewhat surprising to want to know the highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football. So, which goalkeeper scored the most goals?
Well, the truth is that Goalkeepers also score.
The highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football are predominantly South American. The continent has produced so many good shot-stoppers who also mastered the art of scoring goals.
Only one goalkeeper from another continent made the list of the 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football.
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Peter Schmeichel is one of the few goalkeepers who scored goals in their careers. He scored an impressive 10 goals in his career, but his 10 goals are not enough to make this list.
Vincent Enyeama of Nigeria scored 10 and 9 goals at Enyimba FC of Nigeria and Hapoel Tel Aviv of Israel respectively. He won the Israeli player of the year award at the latter.
However, his 20 career goals are not enough to make the list of 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football.
The 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football are highlighted below. From the least to the highest-placed goalkeeper, we will briefly look at their total career goals.
5. Rene Higuita (41 goals)
It is impossible to talk about the revolution of the art of goalkeeping without a mention of Rene Higuita.
The former Colombian National team goalkeeper was among the first goalkeepers to adopt the “sweeper-keeper” role in football.
Higuita was also known for his often risky and dramatic style of play. His famous ‘scorpion kick’ clearance off the line against England is proof.
Rene Higuita scored 3 times for his national team between 1987 and 1999.
The former Columbian Goalkeeper scored most of his career goals at the various clubs he represented between 1985 and 2009. He represented 12 different clubs within that period and scored 41 times.
Rene Higuita scored 5 of those 41 career goals at Deportivo Pereira before his retirement in 2009. In summary, Higuita is the 5th amongst the highest-scoring goalkeepers in the history of football.
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4. Dimitar Ivankov (42 goals)
Dimitar Ivankov is the only non-South American in the top 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football. He sits 4th on the list with 42 goals.
The former Bulgarian International is famous for his goal-scoring ability. He scored at almost every club during his playing career between 1996 and 2011.
Ivanov scored 18 times for Levski Sofia and 6 goals for Kayserispor and Bursaspor respectively. He returned to Levski Sofia after retirement as a footballer as the club’s goalkeeping coach.
3. Johnny Vegas Fernandez (45 goals)
Johnny Vegas Fernandez is the 3rd highest scoring goalkeeper in the history of football. Fernandez’s career lasted for 20 years, between 1997 and 2017.
Fernandez represented and scored for the likes of Union Huaral, Sport Ancash, and Pacifico but scored most of his 45 career goals between 1997 and 2003 at Sport Boys. Vegas made 3 appearances with Peru between 1999 and 2000.
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2. Jose Luis Chilavert (67 goals)
Chilavert sits second in the top 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football. The former Paraguayan national team captain was known for his ability to score from freekicks.
Chilavert is one of 2 goalkeepers to have scored a hattrick in one match. He scored 8 goals for the Paraguayan national team. The most by any goalkeeper in the history of national team football.
Impressively, 3 of his 8 national team goals were scored against South American giant, Argentina. Chilavert is a 3-time IFFHS ( International Federation of Football History and Statistics) World’s Goalkeeper of the Year award recipient.
More to Chilavert’s achievements, he made the FIFA team of the tournament at the 1998 FIFA world cup.
Chilavert was at the peak of his goal-scoring ability at Velez Sarsfield where he scored 48 goals in 341 appearances.
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1. Rogerio Ceni (131 goals)
Former Brazilian international and Sao Paulo legend, Rogerio Ceni, sits top of the top 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football.
Ceni failed to score in any of his 18 appearances for Brazil but scored over 100 goals at the club level.
Rogerio Ceni is a “specialist” in taking free kicks. His 100th career goal against arch-rivals Corinthians was via a free-kick. In total, Ceni scored an astonishing 61 goals from freekicks!!!
At the time of his retirement as a footballer in 2015, Ceni was comfortably in the top 10 highest goal scorer in the history of Sao Paulo. Sao Paulo then retired his no 1 jersey!!!
Conclusion
In summary, we can see that there are some exceptional goalkeepers who scored regularly. But which goalkeeper scored the most goals? It is Rogerio Ceni, who scored 131 career goals.
More to it, 4 of the top 5 highest scoring goalkeepers in the history of football are from South America. So, we can confidently say South American Goalkeepers are the best scoring goalkeepers in the history of football.
Do you think European Goalkeepers can outscore their South American counterparts later in the future?
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