Ranking the Top 6 Goalscorers in Europe Since Lionel Messi Made his Debut in 2004

• Lionel Messi scored his 15th Ligue 1 goal of the season against Lens on Saturday
• The Argentine has thus equalled Cristiano Ronaldo's tally of 495 goals in Europe's top five leagues
• Sports Brief looks at the top 6 top scorers in Europe’s five biggest leagues since Messi's La Liga debut

Lionel Messi has extended his GOAT claim over Cristiano Ronaldo after breaking his rival's goalscoring record in Europe.

The Argentine has overtaken Ronaldo's record for goals in European club football by scoring his 702nd in Paris Saint-Germain's win over Nice.

The World Cup-winning star clipped in a cross from left-back Nuno Mendes in the 26th minute.

The goal took him one clear of his long-term nemesis Ronaldo for the most goals scored in Europe, in 105 less games.

The PSG star now has a reputation as one of the greatest goalscorers in the history of the game and is well-founded. But is he the top scorer in Europe’s major leagues since announcing himself with a goal on his Barcelona debut way back in 2004?

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Sports Brief runs through the top 6 top scorers in Europe’s five biggest leagues since Messi’s La Liga debut against Espanyol on October 16th, 2004.

Edinson Cavani (267 goals)

In 109 appearances for the Rosanero, Cavani scored 34 Serie goals, earning him a transfer to Napoli. Since then, he has scored goals wherever he has played, but especially during his seven-year stay at PSG, where he scored 138 goals in 200 Ligue 1 games.

He left Manchester United last summer with the possibility of returning to South America, specifically Boca Juniors, but chose to remain in Europe and sign for Valencia on a free. Perhaps the 36-year-old will look back on that as Los Che fight to avoid the decline.

Karim Benzema (276 goals)

The current Ballon d'Or winner made his professional debut during the 2004–05 season, similar to Messi.

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Benzema made his career-defining move to Real Madrid in the summer of 2009 after gradually beginning to establish himself as one of the best strikers of his generation at Lyon.

You can probably guess that if he hadn't spent nine years at Real Madrid serving as Cristiano Ronaldo's understudy, this number would be much higher.

Nevertheless, with 233 goals for Los Blancos, he ranks fifth all-time in La Liga goals scored, and by the time he hangs up his boots, he very well may be third.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic (296 goals)

Ibrahimovic scored 35 Eredivisie goals for Ajax and 16 league goals in Sweden for his home club Malmo before moving to Juventus in 2004.

Since then, he has scored more than 100 goals in Serie A, Ligue 1, and the Premier League for Barcelona and Manchester United, respectively. He has also scored a good number of goals in La Liga.

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At the age of 41, things are still going well.

Robert Lewandowski (329 goals)

The Polish international made headlines around the world when he signed with Jurgen Klopp's Borussia Dortmund.

From that point on, a transfer to Bayern Munich seemed inevitable, and sure enough, he ended up winning the Bundesliga championship in each of his nine seasons in Bavaria while tallying 238 goals.

Lewandowski finished 53 goals short of Gerd Muller's all-time Bundesliga record after accounting for the 78 goals he scored for Dortmund.

Cristiano Ronaldo (495 goals)

Ronaldo was the only player on this list, aside from Ibrahimovic, to make their professional debut in a major European league before Messi. He did so in August 2002 for Sporting, his childhood club, and joined Manchester United the following summer.

Before Messi made his La Liga debut with Barcelona, the Portugal international scored four Premier League goals for United, and soon after, an era-defining rivalry was born.

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Messi is currently on a level with Ronaldo's total goals in the major European leagues, albeit doing so in 54 fewer games.

Lionel Messi (495 goals)

The Argentinean phenom made his La Liga debut by scoring for Barcelona, giving his career a fitting start. Messi would score 474 goals in 520 league games for Barcelona after that. That is by far the most goals scored in any major European league, including La Liga.

Since then, he has scored 20 more Ligue 1 goals for PSG just for good measure.