Since the dawn of the beautiful game, goal scoring has been the most sought after attribute in a player. Ultimately, the aim of soccer is to outscore your opponents. As such, the most prolific goal scorers of any era are inevitably hot property. All of the players on this list have averaged well in excess of one goal every two games, an incredible record to maintain over an entire season. This is a list of the 15 most clinical strikers in soccer history. That is to say, the player with the highest goals per game ratio. Entire goals tally is irrelevant, this list is purely based on how many goals each player has averaged per game over the course of their career. Another requirement of this list is that it only accounts for a players record in their top domestic division, as there is bound to be someone in the Romanian seventh tier who has averaged a hat-trick a game, but to include such players would make the list a little redundant. Of course, some will argue that the Premier League is stronger than the Primeira Liga and there is some truth in that, but all of the players on this played in a top division or divisions and almost all represented their country at international level. To give some perspective of the goal scoring records in this list, Cristiano Ronaldo has a record of 0.64 goals per game, whilst his Brazilian namesake averaged 0.7 goals per game but neither players records can get them onto this list, whilst Lionel Messi’s record of 0.75 goals per game means he only misses out by a fraction of a goal a game. 15. Romario – 0.77 Goals per Game 14. Just Fontaine – 0.82 Goals per Game 13. Peter Simpson – 0.85 Goals per Game 12. Sandor Kocsis – 0.88 Goals per Game T-11. Eusebio – 0.9 Goals per Game T-11. Gunnar Nordahl – 0.9 Goals per Game T-9. Gerd Muller – 0.93 Goals per Game T-9. Pele – 0.93 Goals per Game 7. Ferenc Puskas – 1.01 Goals per Game T-6. Bernabe Ferreyra – 1.04 Goals per Game T-6. Jimmy McGrory – 1.04 Goals per Game 4. Franz Binder – 1.10 Goals per Game 3. Imre Schlosser – 1.30 Goals per Game 2. Josef Bican – 1.52 Goals per Game 1. Fernando Peyroteo – 1.77 Goals per Game Full details.... http://www.thesportster.com/soccer/top-15-most-clinical-strikers-of-all-time/
So he did, I'll point it out, but he can't amend them once they're up(I'll amend the OP, but don't tell anyone)
He emails them over and they put them up, he has no control once they've left him, he had one last week where they added a spelling mistake in the title.
The following lad should be on the list: Dixie Dean: 310 goals in 362 games = 0.856 gs/gm, playing for Everton in Div 1, late 20's, early 30's. His overall record in professional football was 425 in 489 = 0.87. By comparison, Brian Clough, admittedly he played for 'Boro & Sunderland in the old 2nd division, scored 251 in 274 = 0.92 per game. I wonder who these researchers also missed ? Even Henrik Larsson's at Celtic is 0.79 !
It looks like Dixie Dean should indeed have made the list, Clough doesn't as he fails to meet the 'top flight' criteria and Larsson isn't even close with a goal scoring record of 0.56 goals per game(he didn't only play for Celtic). There's probably more than one missed though, 'these researchers' are my lad in his bedroom.
I hope you gave him a slap for using the word soccer. Damn kids with no respect for history and tradition, wanting to americanise the game we love.
Congratulations to your lad OLM, a very good article, and well presented. He's obviously been thorough defining his data selection criteria and validating it. Points I intentionally mentioned & clarified (Clough in old Second Division, Larsson at Celtic) were made to stress how difficult it is to come up with such a comprehensively accurate list. "...of all time" is a very big ask as far as researching available data is concearned, and is dependent on accuracy/quality of previous research. I was not being critical as you probably realize, just highlighting how difficult it is to be absolutely certain of the final results.
Fernando Peyroteo one ot the mythic "5 violins" from Sporting Clube de Portugal in the 40's. Peyroteo is the one in the middle. please log in to view this image
With someone like Bican, when no-one really knows how many goals he scored (although he scored so many that it would take a major drought to noticeably modify his record).
I was surprised to see that my favourite player, Ferenc Puskas, wasn't higher up the list. He scored 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary and he managed four for Real Madrid in the 1960 European Cup Final. He looked nothing like a modern day athletic footballer; he was short, stocky and balding but possessed the best left foot I've ever seen.
