Diego Maradona
Gerd Müller
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Gerd Müller leads 1 of 2 categories. Our all-time ranking places Diego Maradona at #3 and Gerd Müller at #12.
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The case for Diego Maradona
The strongest peak-over-career case in sport. At Mexico 1986 Maradona produced the most dominant individual World Cup on record — 5 goals and 5 assists, direct involvement in 10 of Argentina's 14 goals — including the Hand of God and the Goal of the Century within four minutes of the England quarterfinal. Then he did the club version: Napoli, never champions in their history, won their only two Scudetti (1987, 1990) and the 1989 UEFA Cup with Maradona as the entire creative apparatus, in the strongest league era Italy ever staged, against the defences of Sacchi's Milan and the Milan-Inter-Juve axis. Twice the world's record transfer — to Barcelona in 1982 and Napoli in 1984 — he finished with around 350 career goals, a modest total that misses the point: no player has ever lifted mediocre teams so far above their level. The self-destruction that followed shortens the résumé but sharpens the legend; judged on best-version-of-a-footballer, many still place him first.
The case for Gerd Müller
Der Bomber der Nation — the most ruthlessly efficient goalscorer the sport has produced. Squat and unspectacular but impossible to mark in the six-yard box, Müller scored 68 goals in just 62 internationals for West Germany, including the winner in the 1974 World Cup final and the golden-boot-topping 10 goals of the 1970 tournament. His single-season Bundesliga record of 40 goals in 1971-72 stood for nearly fifty years, until Robert Lewandowski managed 41 in 2020-21, and his 365 Bundesliga goals remain the competition's all-time mark by a distance. He won the 1970 Ballon d'Or, the 1972 European Championship, and three consecutive European Cups with Bayern Munich from 1974 to 1976, finishing with over 600 goals in senior club and international football. Not a dribbler or a creator — a finisher of pure, remorseless instinct, whose economy in front of goal set the template every poacher since has been measured against.