We run through the all-time European Championship top scorers and outline those forwards’ most impressive tournament statistics and goal records.
The European Championship has showcased some of the greatest goalscorers in football history since its first edition back in 1960.
While the Euros have been won most often by Germany and Spain, who have racked up three titles each, it is players from Portugal, France and England who sit most prominently in the list of all-time Euros top scorers.
Only one of those attacking stars, Cristiano Ronaldo, has ever been able to reach double figures for goals in Euros history, though.
It is France great Michel Platini, meanwhile, who holds the record for the most goals in a single edition of the Euros.
Here, we run through the all-time European Championship top scorers and review some of their most impressive tournament statistics and goal records.
Euros Top Scorers All-Time
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – 14 goals
Michel Platini (France) – 9 goals
Antoine Griezmann (France) – 7 goals
Alan Shearer (England) – 7 goals
Álvaro Morata (Spain) – 7 goals
Romelu Lukaku (Belgium) – 6 goals
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) – 6 goals
Thierry Henry (France) – 6 goals
Nuno Gomes (Portugal) – 6 goals
Wayne Rooney (England) – 6 goals
Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands) – 6 goals
Patrick Kluivert (Netherlands) – 6 goals
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – 14 goals
Ronaldo holds a host of individual records at the European Championship, including the leading mark as the all-time top scorer.
The Portugal great has scored 14 goals at the Euros, putting him five strikes clear of any other player going into Euro 2024.
Ronaldo’s goals have come in five separate editions of the tournament and across a total of 25 appearances.
While he has scored plenty of penalties over the course of his career for the likes of Manchester United and Real Madrid, just three of Ronaldo’s 14 strikes for Portugal at the Euros have come from the spot.
His most prolific tournament to date was Euro 2020, when he netted five times in just four appearances, converting five of his 15 total shots in a lethal display of finishing.
Ronaldo netted three times each in both Euro 2012 and Euro 2016, helping Portugal to win the latter tournament despite suffering an injury in the final. He racked up 625 minutes on the pitch during that edition of the competition and fired in 45 shots across the seven games he played in, scoring against Wales in the semi-finals.
He also helped Portugal to reach the final on home soil as a youngster in Euro 2004, only to see Greece produce a stunning upset in the showpiece match. If the Al-Nassr striker can help his country to the latter stages again in Germany this year, it would cap a quite remarkable Euros career.
With no other active player on more than seven goals ahead of Euro 2024, it’ll be a tough task for a European rival to overhaul Ronaldo’s goal record any time soon.
2. Michel Platini (France) – 9 goals
Platini is second on the list of all-time Euros scorers with nine goals, a feat all the more remarkable given he scored them all in just one tournament, giving him the record for most goals in a single edition of the Euros.
Platini lit up the 1984 tournament as France triumphed on home soil, scoring the fastest hat-trick in tournament history against Yugoslavia, with his treble in that group match arriving in just 18 minutes.
Platini also scored a treble against Belgium in the round robin stage and he remains the only player who has struck multiple hat-tricks in the Euros.
Only eight hat-tricks have ever been netted in Euros history, with Platini accounting for two of them, and no trebles have been scored at all since David Villa struck three times for Spain against Russia in Euro 2008.
A magnificent Euro 84 for Platini was capped with a free-kick in the final against Spain.
His nine strikes came at an average of just 53 minutes per goal and just one of them came from the penalty spot.
While Ronaldo now holds the all-time scoring record after passing him at Euro 2020, it would take a stunning effort for anyone to produce a single tournament as spectacular as Platini managed in 1984.
=3. Antoine Griezmann (France) – 7 goals
Platini’s compatriot Griezmann also boasts a formidable record at the European Championship, with the Atlético Madrid star sitting joint-third in the all-time goal rankings.
Griezmann’s goals have come from just two tournaments and 11 matches, with his minutes per goal ratio (130) actually better than overall scoring leader Ronaldo.
He did most of the heavy lifting at Euro 2016, scoring six times and adding two assists in seven matches, only for France to lose out to Ronaldo and Portugal in the final.
Griezmann had netted twice in the semi-final victory over Germany and also inspired a key group-stage comeback against the Republic of Ireland.
Despite Les Bleus ultimately finishing as runners-up, Griezmann won the tournament Golden Boot award and was named Player of the Tournament by UEFA.
He only managed one goal at Euro 2020 but there are still just two players in competition history who have netted more goals than he has.
=3. Alan Shearer (England) – 7 goals
While there was a heart-breaking semi-final exit for England at Euro 96, it was a tournament that established Shearer among his country’s greatest ever strikers.
Shearer netted five times that summer as England made it all the way to the last four before losing out to Germany on penalties at Wembley.
He scored in all three group games, including the famous wins over Scotland and the Netherlands, netting twice against the latter. Another goal followed in the quarter-final triumph over Spain.
Shearer then scored twice more in just three games at Euro 2000, although that was a less successful Euros for the Three Lions four years on from their memorable summer on home soil.
The Newcastle United great had also appeared at Euro 92 early on in his international career, but did not net in his sole appearance at a tournament surprisingly won by Denmark.
With a goal every 122 minutes at the Euros, only Platini (53) and Patrick Kluivert (98) are more prolific among attackers to have scored six or more times in competition history.
=3. Álvaro Morata (Spain) – 7 goals
Few players divide opinion like Morata, but there is little arguing with his goalscoring record.
The Spain striker bagged his first three European Championship goals at Euro 2016, scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Turkey before also giving La Roja the lead against Croatia in their final group game, though they went on to lose 2-1.
At the rearranged Euro 2020 tournament he scored just once in the group stage, in the 1-1 draw with Poland, but found the net twice more in the knockout stage, against Croatia in a 5-3 victory in the last 16, before also scoring against Italy in the semi-finals, only for Spain to lose to the Azzurri on penalties.
Morata got his seventh Euros goal, and third against Croatia, in Spain’s opening game of Euro 2024 with a neat finish when he raced on to a through ball from Pedri. He will be looking to add more during the tournament in Germany.
6. Seven different players – 6 goals
There are seven players who have scored six times in European Championship history, giving them a share of sixth place in the all-time tournament goalscoring charts.
Belgium forward Romelu Lukaku is among them, and he has a chance of moving up the rankings at Euro 2024.
Lukaku had two goals in 2016 before netting four times last time out – only Ronaldo and Patrik Schick ended Euro 2020 with more goals to their name than the Belgian.
The other six players to score six times in Euros history are Netherlands duo Patrick Kluivert and Ruud van Nistelrooy, France great Thierry Henry, former Portugal striker Nuno Gomes, England icon Wayne Rooney and Sweden superstar Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Of the group of players on six goals, it is the Dutch sharp-shooters Van Nistelrooy (eight) and Kluivert (nine) who reached that tally in the fewest games.
Former Man Utd striker Van Nistelrooy had his best continental tournament at Euro 2004, scoring four times, while it was at Euro 2000 when Kluivert thrived, scoring five times in as many matches as the Dutch made it all the way to the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, of that list of players on six Euros goals it is only Henry, Gomes, Rooney and Ibrahimovic who are also part of a unique 11-man club who have scored goals in at least three Euros tournaments.
The other members are Vladimir Smicer, Hélder Postiga, Jürgen Klinsmann, Luka Modric, Robert Lewandowski, Morata and, of course, Ronaldo – who has netted in a record five editions of the Euros.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our new football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.