knowledge-List of world association football records

 

                               

        

Goals and goalscoring records[edit]

Record	Player	Nationality	Year(s)	Details	Ref	Image
'Highest goal-scoring goalkeeper of all time '	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	1990–2015	132 goals in 1,237 games	[1]
'Player who has scored the most official goals for a single club'	Lionel Messi	Argentina	2005–2021	672 goals for Barcelona	[2] [3]
'The world's all-time goalscorer according to Guinness Book and FIFA '	Pelé	Brazil	1953–1977	1284 goals in 1,315 games	[4] [5]
'The world's all-time undocumented goalscorer according to Guinness Book '	Arthur Friedenreich	Brazil	1909–1935	1,329 undocumented goals. His feat is not recognised by FIFA.
'The world's all-time goalscorer according to RSSSF (official matches) '	Erwin Helmchen	Germany	1926–1952	981+ goals in 595 games	[6]
'The world's all-time goalscorer according to RSSSF (all matches) '	Lajos Tichy	Hungary	1953–1971	1912 goals in 1,301 games	[7]
'All-time league goalscorer according to RSSSF (all leagues including regional/reserve leagues, final tournaments) '	Erwin Helmchen	Germany	1926–1952	720+ goals	[8]
'All-time first division goalscorer according to RSSSF '	Josef Bican	Austria  Czechoslovakia	1931–1955	526 goals	[8]
'All-time best club goalscorer according to IFFHS '	Romário	Brazil	1985–2009	689 goals	[9]
'Player to score most goals in international club competitions'	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2004–present	144 goals: Cristiano scored 135 goals in UEFA Champions League, 7 in FIFA Club World Cup and 2 in UEFA Super Cup.
'Player to win top-scorer awards in third, second and first division '	Dario Hubner	Italy	1987–2011	1992 Italian third division, 1996 second division and 2002 first division.
'Only player to win top-scorer awards in third, second, first division and international competitions '	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	2005–present	2007 Polish third division, 2008 second division and 2010 first division. Also Bundesliga top-scorer in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2020 UEFA Champions League.
'Player to win most FIFA World's Best player awards'	Lionel Messi	Argentina	2009–2019	6 awards: Messi won the The Best FIFA Men's Player in 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2019
'Highest goal-scoring defender of all time'	Ronald Koeman	Netherlands	1980–1997	207 goals in 581 games. Average of 1 goal every 2.8 games	[10]
'Player with most domestic top-scorer awards according to IFFHS'	Josef Bican	Austria  Czechoslovakia	1931–1955	12 wins: Czechoslovakian league 1938, 1939, 1946, 1947, 1950 - Austrian league 1934 - Bohemian/Moravian league 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944 - Czechoslovakian second division 1949
'All-time international goalscorer (national team)'	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2004–	115 goals in 182 games.
'Youngest international goalscorer (national team)'	Aung Kyaw Tun	Myanmar	2000	On 6 November 2000, Aung Kyaw Tun scored for Myanmar in the 2000 AFF Championship match against Thailand (3-1 defeat) at the age of 14 years and 93 days.
'All-time national team goalscorer in all football-related sports (association football, futsal, beach soccer and indoor soccer) '	Falcão (Futsal)	Brazil	1998–2018	401 goals for Brazil (futsal)	[11]
'Player scored most official goals in a calendar year'	Leo Messi	Argentina	2012	91 goals in all competitions	[12]
'Only player to have scored more than 50 goals in 6 consecutive seasons'	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2010–2016		[13]
'Only player to have scored more than 40 goals in 10 consecutive seasons'	Lionel Messi	Argentina	2009–2019		[14]
'First goalkeeper to score a hat-trick'	Ilija Pantelic	Yugoslavia	1963	Ilija Pantelic, a penalty specialist became the first goalkeeper to score a hat-trick in the match NK Trešnjevka - FK Vojvodina 0-3 in the Yugoslav first division.
'Only goalkeeper to score a hat-trick of penalties'	José Luis Chilavert	Paraguay	1999	On 28 November 1999, Paraguayan goalkeeper José Luis Chilavert scored a hat-trick of penalties for Vélez Sársfield in a 6–1 victory against Ferro Carril Oeste.	[15][16]
'Player with most goals scored in an international match'	Archie Thompson	Australia	2001	On 11 April 2001, Archie Thompson scored 13 goals, in the Australia 31–0 American Samoa match as a part of the 2002 FIFA World Cup qualification.	[17]
'Player with most goals scored in a league match'	Panagiotis Pontikos	Cyprus	2007	On 7 May 2007, Panagiotis Pontikos scored 16 goals in the match Olympos Xylofagou - SEK Agiou Athanasiou 24–3, in the Cyprus third division.	[18]
'Player with most goals scored in a domestic cup match'	Stefan Dembicki	France	1942	In the preliminary round of the 1942-43 French Cup, Stefan Dembicki scored 16 goals in the RC Lens - Auby Asturies match (32-0). He broke the previous record of 12 September 1885, when Jocky Petrie scored 13 goals in the Arbroath - Bon Accord match (36-0), in the Scottish Cup.	[19]
'Fastest goal in history'	Vuk Bakić	Serbia	2012	On 25 September 2012, Vuk Bakić scored after two seconds for the Serbian junior championship between GSP Polet and Dorcol	[20]
'Youngest player to score a hat trick'	Ntinos Pontikas	Greece	1996	On 21 September 1996, Ntinos Pontikas in his debut, aged 14 and 198 days, scored his team's all 3 goals in the Ampelokipoi-Haravgi match (4-3), in the fifth division of the Greek championship.	[21][22]
'Most consecutive hat-tricks in history'	Stjepan Lucijanic	Croatia	2016	On 9 November 2016, Stjepan Lucijanic scored his fifth consecutive hat-trick during the NK Dracice Dakovo - NK Zrinski Drenje match (10-0) in the Croatian seventh division. He tallied 20 goals in those five games, breaking an 18-year-old record held by Japanese forward Masashi Nakayama, set between 15 and 29 April in 1998.	[23]
'Player scored most official hat-tricks'	Pelé	Brazil	1957–1977	96 in total	[24][25]
'Player who scored at least one hat-trick in most competitions'	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2002–present	10 competitions: Cristiano Ronaldo scored at least one hat-trick in the Spanish League, Copa del Rey, Serie A, Premier League, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Champions League, World Cup Qualification, European Qualification, Nations League and FIFA World Cup.	[26]
'Fastest hat-trick in history (men)'	Alex Torr	England	2013	On 4 May 2013, 20-year old Alex Torr scored a hat-trick in 70 seconds during the match between Rawson Springs and Meadowhall (7-1), in the English Sunday league of Sheffield. He broke Tommy Ross' record which was set in 1964 when he scored a hat-trick in 90 seconds for Ross County against Nairn in the Scottish fifth division.	[27]
'Fastest hat-trick in history (women)'	Fabienne Humm	Switzerland	2015	On 12 May 2015, Swiss player Fabienne Humm scored the fastest hat-trick in women's football, scoring three goals in five minutes in Switzerland's 10–1 drubbing of Ecuador, during the FIFA Women's World Cup	[28]
'Fastest international hat-trick (national team)'	Willie Hall	England	1938	On 16 November 1938, during the friendly between England and Northern Ireland in Manchester (7-0), Willie Hall of Tottenham Hotspur, scored 3 goals in three and a half minutes. In that game Hall scored five goals during a 30-minute period either side of half-time.	[29]
'Player to score 2 goals within less than a minute'	Ignacio Scocco	Argentina	2013	On 15 August 2013, during the game Botafogo-Internacional in the Brazilian Championship, Ignacio Scocco scored two goals in the 33rd minute, with a difference of 49 seconds between goals.	[30]
'Most goals scored by a substitute in a single game'	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	2015	On 24 September 2015, during the Bundesliga game between Bayern Munchen and Wolfsburg (5-1, ht:0-1) Robert Lewandowski came on as a sub on the second half and scored five goals in nine minutes. 4 of them were scored within five minutes and 42 seconds.	[31]
'Fastest 4 goals in a single game'
'Goalkeeper scored most goals from non set-pieces'	Jorge Campos	Mexico	1988–2004	35 goals: Jorge Campos would often switch to forward during the games
'Player who scored the most bicycle kicks in history'	Hugo Sánchez	Mexico	1972–1997	10+ bicycle kick goals	[32]
'Player who scored the most Olympic goals (direct corner kick goals) of all time'	Şükrü Gülesin	Turkey	1940–1955	32 goals	[33][34]
'Player scored most free-kick goals'	Zico	Brazil	1971–1994	101 free-kick goals: Zico scored 62 for Flamengo, 17 for Udinese, 15 for Caxima, and 7 for Brazil.	[35]
'Player scored most penalty kicks'	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2002–present	140 penalties: Cristiano Ronaldo converted 140 out of 168 penalties.	[36]
'Player with the best scoring penalty kick ratio'	Ledio Pano	Albania  Greece	1986–2002	100%: Ledio Pano scored 50 penalties in 50 attempts during his career in Albania and Greece.	[37]
'Longest headed goal scored'	Jone Samuelsen	Norway	2011	On 25 September 2011, Jone Samuelsen scored a header from a 58.13 m (190 ft 8.58 in) distance during the ODD Grenland-Tromsø Idrettslag match (3-1), in the Norwegian first division.
'Longest distance goal scored'	Ubirajara Alcântara	Brazil	1970	On 19 September 1970, Flamengo goalkeeper Ubirajara Alcântara scored against Madureira Esporte Clube in the Campeonato Carioca from his goal area to the other end, a distance of 91.9 meters. The field at the time was 120 meters, the longest distance accepted by FIFA.	[38]
'Longest distance goal scored according to Guinness Records '	Tom King	Wales	2021	On 21 January 2021, goalkeeper Tom King scored from own six-yard box, a distance of 96.01 meters (105 yds) for Newport County in the 1–1 draw with Cheltenham Town, in the League Two.	[39]
'Players who scored in all possible minutes of a game'	Cristiano Ronaldo / Zlatan Ibrahimović	Portugal /  Sweden	2002–present 1999–present	Ronaldo and Ibrahimović are the only two players to score in every minute of a match	[40]
'Player who scored in most competitions in one season'	Fernando Torres	Spain	2012–2013	7 competitions: Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Community Shield, FIFA Club World Cup, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Euros.	[41]

Appearances records[edit]

Record	Player	Nationality	Year(s)	Details	Ref	Image
'Player with the most seasons as captain for one club '	Francesco Totti	Italy	1998–2017	19 seasons: Totti captained Roma from 1998 until his retirement in 2017
'Player with the most matches as captain for one club '	Rogério Ceni	Brazil	2001 - 2015	982 games: Rogério Ceni captained São Paulo from 2001 until 2015
'Player who played the most games for one club '			2015	1237 games
'Footballer played most official games in history'	Peter Shilton	England	1966–1997	1,390 games over 31 seasons.
'Player with most international club competition appearances in history'	Iker Casillas	Spain	1999–2019	192 appearances: 188 UEFA club competitions, 2 in Intercontinental Cup, 2 in FIFA World Club Cup.	[42]
'Player with most international caps in history'	Soh Chin Ann	Malaysia	1969–1984	219 caps.	[43]
'Player spent most years on top of the international caps record list'	Billy Wright	England	1957–1970	13 years: Billy Wright broke Ferenc Puskas' record in 1957 but his 105 cap record was surpassed in 1970 by Bobby Charlton.
'Player with most international caps for an amateur national team'	Billy Neil	Scotland	1957–1969	45 caps for the Scotland national amateur football team.
'Player with most international goals for an amateur national team'	Vivian Woodward	England	1906–1914	57 goals for the England national amateur football team.
'Youngest footballer to play in a professional league'	Mauricio Baldivieso	Bolivia	2009	On 19 July 2009, Bolivian Mauricio Baldivieso aged 12, debuted as a substitute in the Bolivian first division for Club Aurora in their away match against La Paz F.C. (Aurora lost 1–0).	[44]
'Oldest professional football player (longest career span)'	Kazuyoshi Miura	Japan	1986–present	Japanese striker Kazu Miura continues playing football for Yokohama FC having almost reached the age of 54.	[45]
'Oldest footballer according to Guinness Book'	Ezzeldin Bahader	Egypt	2020	On 6 October 2020, 74-year old Ezzeldin Bahader became the oldest footballer in history featuring in his team's match against El Ayat Sports (defeat by 3–2) in the Egyptian third division. He broke Israeli goalkeeper Isaak Hayik's record who had become the oldest on 5 April 2019 at the age of 73, when he played for Ironi Or Yehuda in the south group of the Israeli third division.	[46]
'Oldest (veteran football) player'	Dickie Borthwick	England	1957–2019	85-year old Dickie Borthwick made 1,600 appearances over the course of a 72-year career, scoring over 400 goals, and previously played for Ross County and Invergordon Town in the Scottish highlands before moving to Dorset, where he played for 11 non-league clubs.	[47]

Other records[edit]

Record	Player	Nationality	Year(s)	Details	Ref	Image
'Most decorated player of all-time'	Ángel Romano	Uruguay	1910–1930	50 titles won: 21 domestic and 8 international with Nacional Montevideo, 21 country trophies with Uruguay.	[48]
'Most decorated player (official titles)'	Dani Alves	Brazil	2001–present	43 titles won	[49]
'Player who won most league titles in history'	Roar Strand	Norway	1989–2017	16 Norwegian league titles with Rosenborg BK in 1990, 1992, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2009, and 2010.
'Player with the most world titles in history'	Toni Kroos	Germany	2013–2018	6 world titles: 1 FIFA World Cup (2014) and 5 FIFA Club World Cups (2013, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018)
'Goalkeeper who saved most penalties in history according to FIFA'	Lev Yashin	Soviet Union	1950–1970	150+ penalties: Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin saved a world-record 150-plus penalties for Dynamo Moscow and Soviet Union.	[50]
'Goalkeeper with the most clean sheets in history'	Lev Yashin	Soviet Union	1949–1971	270 matches without a goal	[51]
'Goalkeeper with the most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal'	Mazaropi	Brazil	1977–1978	1816 minutes without a goal	[52]
'First goalkeeper in history to score a goal'	Jaguare Bezerra de Vasconcelos	Brazil	1938	On June 22, 1938, in the final of the French Cup scored the winning goal by a penalty in Olympique Marseille's 2-1 victory over Metz.	[53]
'Only player who missed a hat-trick of penalties in one game'	Martín Palermo	Argentina	1999	On 4 July 1999, Martin Palermo missed 3 penalties during the Copa America match between Argentina and Colombia (0-3).	[54]
'Player most sent-off by the referee during his career'	Gerardo Bedoya	Colombia	1995–2015	46 red cards in total	[55]
'Heaviest football player in history'	William Foulke	England	1908	William Foulke was 2.01 m tall, weighed 141 kg when he started, but at the end of his career he was weighing 165 kg.
'Tallest professional football player in history'	Simon Bloch Jørgensen	Denmark	2010–present	2.10 m (6 ft 10+1⁄2 in)	[56]
'Shortest professional football player in history'	Bimbinha	Brazil		1.47 m (4 ft 10 in)	[57]
'Player who played for most clubs during his professional professional career'	Sebastián Abreu	Uruguay	1993–present	31 clubs	[58] [59] [60] [61]
'Player who played in every continent during his professional career'	Lutz Pfannenstiel	Germany	1991–2011	Goalkeeper Lutz Pfannenstiel is the only player in history to have played for clubs in Africa, Central America, North America, South America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. He played for 27 clubs during his career including 2 as a youth player.
'Player who played in most divisions with one club'	Nathan Pond	England		Played for Fleetwood Town in 7 divisions of English football: North West Counties League, Northern Premier League Division 1 North, Northern Premier League Premier Division, Conference North, Conference Premier, Football League 2 and Football League 1.
'Footballer to play both an international and a domestic game on the same day'	Juninho Paulista	Brazil	1994	On 16 November 1994, Juninho Paulista played two games for São Paulo. The first was during the first leg of the Copa Conmebol quarter-finals against Sporting Cristal from Peru (3-1 win) with São Paulo using their the reserve team. In the second, he come on as a second half substitute against Gremio Porto Alegre in the Brazilian Championship (also with a 3–1 win).	[29