Portugal national team captain Cristiano Ronaldo is currently leading the Euro top-scorers all-time list. 

Cristiano Ronaldo tops the Euro top-scorers all-time list with 14 goals across five editions of the UEFA European Football Championship.

After making his Euro debut in Portugal in 2004, Ronaldo later netted his first international goal against Greece in the same tournament.

Since then, the Portugal talisman has featured in four more editions of the UEFA European Football Championship in 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020.

Legendary French football player Michel Platini features second on the Euro top-scorers all-time list.

Michel Platini previously held the record for the most goals scored in the European Championship with nine goals. His record was surpassed by Ronaldo in 2021.

Having featured in a single edition of the European Championship in France in 1984, Michel Platini netted nine goals to guide his side to the coveted title at home. Michel Platini’s nine goals is still a record in a single European Championship.

England’s Alan Shearer, Antoine Griezmann of France and Spain’s Alvaro Morata share the third spot on the Euro top-scorers all-time list. All three have scored seven goals each in European Football Championship history.

Between 1960 and 2008, the Golden Boot award was presented to the top scorer of each edition of the UEFA European Championship.

Since 2008, if there is more than one player with the same number of goals, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has contributed the most assists. If there is still more than one player, the tie-breaker goes to the player who has played the least amount of time.

Know Euro top-scorers all-time list and the players with most goals in every UEFA European Football Championship.

Euro top-scorers all-time: Know the leading UEFA European Championship goal-scorers

Rank	Player	Team	Goals	Tournaments
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	14	2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020
2	Michel Platini	France	9	1984
3	Alan Shearer	England	7	1992, 1996, 2000
	Antoine Griezmann	France	7	2016, 2020
	Alvaro Morata	Spain	7	2016, 2020, 2024
4	Ruud van Nistelrooy	Netherlands	6	2004, 2008
	Patrick Kluivert	Netherlands	6	1996, 2000, 2004
	Wayne Rooney	England	6	2004, 2012, 2016
	Romelu Lukaku	Belgium	6	2016, 2020
	Thierry Henry	France	6	2000, 2004, 2008
	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Sweden	6	2004, 2008, 2012, 2016
	Nuno Gomes	Portugal	6	2000, 2004, 2008

Euro top-scorers all-time: Players with most goals in every UEFA European Championship

Year	Top-scorer (s)	Goals
1960	François Heutte (France), Viktor Ponedelnik (USSR), Valentin Ivanov (USSR), Drazan Jerkovic (Yugoslavia), Milan Galic (Yugoslavia)	2
1964	Jesus María Pereda (Spain), Ferenc Bene (Hungary), Deszo Novak (Hungary)	2
1968	Dragan Dzajic (Yugoslavia)	2
1972	Gerd Muller (West Germany)	4
1976	Dieter Muller (West Germany)	4
1980	Klaus Allofs (West Germany)	3
1984	Michel Platini (France)	9
1988	Marco van Basten (Netherlands)	5
1992	Henrik Larsen (Denmark), Karl-Heinz Riedle (Germany), Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands), Tomas Brolin (Sweden)	3
1996	Alan Shearer (England)	5
2000	Patrick Kluivert (Netherlands), Savo Milosevic (Yugoslavia)	5
2004	Milan Baros (Czech Republic)	5
2008	David Villa (Spain)	4
2012	Fernando Torres (Spain), Alan Dzagoev (Russia), Mario Gomez (Germany), Mario Mandzukić (Croatia), Mario Balotelli (Italy), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)	3
2016	Antoine Griezmann (France)	6
2020	Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Patrik Schick (Czechia)	5

Photo credit: Alamy

The line-up for the UEFA Champions League round of 16 was completed on Wednesday.

Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Borussia Dortmund, Juventus, Liverpool, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid topped their respective groups to qualify as seeded teams for the next round.

On the other hand, Atalanta, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Lazio, Leipzig, Borussia Mönchengladbach, Porto and Sevilla have managed to make it to the knockout stages by finishing in the second in their groups, thereby qualifying as unseeded teams for the round of 16.

Meanwhile, Manchester United, Inter Milan and Ajax are some of the big clubs who failed to qualify for the knockout stages of this season’s Champions League.

The elite European football competition’s group stage has witnessed some sensational individual performances in the first six matchdays. Here are five best players from UCL 2020-21 group stage:

Neymar - PSG

The PSG talisman has had an incredible start to the new Champions League campaign after scoring six goals in five games this season. Neymar had bagged a stunning hat-trick on matchday 6 to help PSG thrash Istanbul Basaksehir 5-1 and finish at the top spot in Group H. Interestingly, the 28-year-old Brazilian has joined former teammate Lionel Messi (8) and Cristiano Ronaldo (8) as the only other players to score three Champions League hat-tricks.

Erling Haaland - Borussia Dortmund

The Norwegian wonderkid has already taken the football world by storm, scoring 33 goals and providing six assists in 32 matches for Borussia Dortmund in 2020. Erling Braut Haaland has also been in sensational form in the Champions League this season, scoring six goals in just four games. In November, the 20-year-old had set a new record by becoming the quickest to 15 Champions League goals in the competition's history. He had broken the previous record held by Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roberto Soldado.

Alvaro Morata - Juventus

Juventus�?Alvaro Morata has been UCL’s joint top-scorer this season with six goals in as many games. The Spanish striker has been in fine goalscoring form for the Old Lady, helping them qualify for the round of 16 by finishing at the top spot in Group G. Interestingly, the 28-year-old had three goals disallowed for offside against Barcelona in a UCL group stage game, which Juventus lost 2�? at home.

Marcus Rashford - Manchester United

Even though Manchester United failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League, Marcus Rashford was one of the standout performers during the group stages. The 23-year-old finished the UCL campaign as joint top-scorer in the competition, with six goals in as many games. The England international had scored the winning goal in a 2�? away win against PSG in the first match of the campaign. In the next UCL encounter, Rashford smashed his first United hat-trick in a 5�? win over RB Leipzig.

Edouard Mendy - Chelsea

Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy has been the best goalkeeper in the Champions League group stages so far. Since the French shot-stopper’s arrival, the Blue’s defense has looked rock-solid in the UCL this season, with four clean sheets so far. Frank Lampard-led Chelsea have shown significant improvements at the back since the 28-year-old has replaced Kepa Arrizabalaga.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Franck Fife

The UEFA Champions League (UCL) returns this week, which means it’s time to fine-tune your fantasy side ahead of the second half of the group stage fixtures.

The UCL has seen plenty of goals this season, with each game averaging 3.25 goals, but if your fantasy side is struggling to rack up the numbers, we have five suggestions that will fix your team's goalscoring woes in a jiffy.

Player: Erling Braut Haaland

Team: Borussia Dortmund

Match: Borussia Dortmund vs Club Brugge

Europe’s hottest striker, Erling Braut Haaland had a career-night against Hertha Berlin at the weekend, scoring four goals in Dortmund's 5-2 rout of the side from the capital. The Norwegian has already scored 15 goals in just 11 matches for the German giants, including three goals in four in the UCL. He scored a brace in the reverse fixture at the start of the month and few can bet against Haaland adding to his tally on Wednesday. A no-brainer to include this gunman in our side.

Player: Ciro Immobile

Team: Lazio

Match: Lazio vs Zenit Saint Petersburg

The other match in Group F will pit Italian giants Lazio against the group’s whipping boys Zenit Saint Petersburg. The Russian side sits at the bottom of the group with just one point in three matches, and the game away to Lazio in Rome is also likely to end in another defeat for Zenit. With Lazio scheduled to play Zenit and Club Brugge in their next two matches, it could be a wise move to draft in striker Ciro Immobile in your fantasy side. With four goals in six Serie A games and a goal in his only appearance in the UCL, the Italian striker has started the season exactly where he left off last season, where he struck 39 goals. Immobile has been incredible since joining Lazio and the 33-year-old will be keen on adding to his tally in the UCL against two fairly weak opponents that he and his side will face over the next seven days.

Player: Ferran Torres

Team: Manchester City

Match: Olympiakos vs Manchester City

Their league form may have been abysmal so far, but Manchester City have been steamrolling teams in the Champions League. The English side have scored thrice in all three matches with summer signing Ferran Torres finding himself on the scoresheet in all three games. The young Spanish winger is yet to open his account in the Premier League but has been brilliant in the UCL. Torres made headways when he struck the first hat-trick of his professional career for Spain in their 6-0 rout of Germany and with the winger seemingly a regular starter in the UCL for City, expect him to continue his terrific recent form against a pretty mediocre Olympiakos side.

Player: Marcus Rashford

Team: Manchester United

Match: Manchester United vs Istanbul Başakşehir

Such is the inconsistency of Manchester United, that they have so far managed to thrash RB Leipzig and score a win over Paris Saint-Germain but somehow managed to fumble a game against one of the weakest sides in the UCL - Turkey's Istanbul Başakşehir. But, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's men have no time to cry over spilt milk and will have to focus on getting the job done at home on Wednesday and the team will be hoping that forward Marcus Rashford can continue his sizzling form in the UCL. Rashford is the competition's joint topscorer with four goals in three games and will be hoping to add to that tally against Istanbul. The Englishman struck a hat-trick in his last outing at Old Trafford in the UCL and a repeat of that dazzling performance could see United take a giant step towards the round-of-16 of the UCL.

Player: Alvaro Morata

Team: Juventus

Match: Juventus vs Ferencvaros

It is quite inexplicable to what magic the Juventus jersey does to Alvaro Morata every time he dons it the UCL. The Spanish striker has a terrific record for the Old Lady in the Champions League and has scored nine goals in his last 14 appearances in the competition for Juventus. The Italian champions will be up against Ferencvaros in the fourth match of their UCL campaign and expect Morata to add to his tally against the Hungarian side on Wednesday.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Alberto Pizzoli

Football can be a funny game at times. Yesterday’s heroes can become tomorrow’s villains in the blink of an eye. In the constantly changing landscape of the beautiful game, a lot can happen inside a week. Players who are established stars can fall by the wayside in a matter of days with their former successes and triumphs becoming nothing more than a footnote in their present. Here, we take a look at a few individuals who joined Premier League clubs with massive reputations but failed to deliver on their promise.

Fernando Torres

The Spanish striker was a phenomenon during his time as Liverpool’s leading striker. He used to terrorize opposition defences regularly during his time in Merseyside, scoring 81 goals and making 16 assists across all competitions as a Red. However, ambitions to win the Premier League and Champions League titles prompted him to join Chelsea in shock January transfer worth 50 million pounds in 2011. And while he did enjoy a Champions League and an FA Cup success, his time with the Blues was underwhelming, to put it mildly. A shadow of his former self with Chelsea, Torres frequently missed gilt-edged chances and finished his career in west London with 45 goals in 172 appearances.

Andy Carroll

Torres leaving for Chelsea forced Liverpool to replace him with Andy Carroll in a deal worth 35 million pounds. Carroll, though, never really managed to settle at the Merseyside outfit and struggled to rediscover the form that he had shown while at Newcastle United. The towering target man wasn’t helped by injuries either, which disrupted him from ever getting a proper run of games. In the end, Carroll managed to score just six goals in 44 league games, which was enough to convince Liverpool to cut their loses and sell him to West Ham United for 15 million pounds in the summer of 2013.

Angel Di Maria

Fresh off the back of a UEFA Champions League winning campaign with Real Madrid, Angel Di Maria was one of the most sought-after players in Europe in the summer of 2014. The Man of the Match in Champions League final was transfer-listed by Los Blancos despite his heroics and Manchester United swooped in to secure his services in a deal worth 59.7 million pounds. Di Maria began life well in the Premier League but soon began to struggle and unsettling off-field distractions only made things worse. Desperate to leave United in the following summer after losing his first-team spot, the Argentine left Old Trafford for Paris Saint-Germain after notching three goals and 10 assists in the Premier League in his only season with United.

• Reguilon joining Spurs is the latest flashpoint between United and Madrid

Alvaro Morata

Alvaro Morata joined Chelsea in a deal worth 60 million pounds in 2017 and it initially looked like money well-spent thanks to his good start to life at Stamford Bridge. He even scored a hat-trick for the Blues in a resounding 4-0 win over Stoke City, but the ultra-competitive nature of the Premier League soon began to catch up with the Spaniard. Things began to fall apart for him because of a combination of injuries and his failure to finish off relatively easy chances. After being dropped from the team and seeing his game time reduced, Morata joined Atletico Madrid in 2019 having netted 16 goals and provided six assists in the Premier League for Chelsea.

Kepa Arrizabalaga

Chelsea’s biggest flop till date, though, is still on their books and is occupying the unforgiving position of being their first-choice goalkeeper. Kepa Arrizabalaga joined Chelsea from Athletic Bilbao in a deal worth 71.6 million pounds �?a record price for a goalkeeper. Perhaps the price tag has weighed heavily on the Spaniard as he’s endured an extremely difficult spell at west London filled with goalkeeping errors and an inability to save shots. He made more errors and saved fewer shots than any other first-choice goalkeeper in the Premier League last season. The new campaign has already seen him making two mistakes in the two first two gameweeks and with his confidence now looking completely shattered, it’s difficult to see how he turns things around in England.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Andrew Yates

Days after Lionel Messi's dispute with Barcelona was settled, the Blaugranas have decided to jump in the market to land as many as two Dutch players ahead of the 2020/21 La Liga season. Their new manager, Ronald Koeman, is keen on strengthening his squad in order to bring his side back on the top.

Meanwhile, Juventus are preparing to bring their former player, while Jose Mourinho's Tottenham Hotspur are in the market for another midfielder; here are the latest stories from the transfer market from around Europe.

Barcelona hunting two Dutch players

Transfer guru Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that apart from selling the deadwood, Barcelona are working on bringing the likes of Memphis Depay from Lyon and Gini Wijnaldum from Liverpool. He further states that the club hopes to land both the players for less than �?0/55m. 

If Liverpool will decide to sell Wijnaldum [no clubs agreement yet, waiting for official bid], they’ll push again to sign Thiago Alcantara from Bayern Münich. Contacts still on with his agent. #LFC #FCB

More details about Gini/Thiago situation: http://t.co/RJtCFKvOdf

�?Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) September 6, 2020

Wijnaldum, an underrated equity at Liverpool, has entered the final year of his current Liverpool contract, and sources have it that the negotiations over a new deal has hit a rock. For Liverpool, there has been no confirmation whatsoever about whether they will sell the midfielder or not, but as things stand, they are waiting for an official bid. And if Wijnaldum does move to Barcelona, the Reds will contact Bayern Munich for Thiago Alcantara.

As far as Depay is concerned, it is said that a fee of around �?5 million will be enough to land the former PSV and Manchester United winger. Koeman, as mentioned, is keen on working with these two players on club level and expect Barca to make an official bid in coming days. 

Juve to consider Morata

Serie A champions Juventus are currently assessing their options, and reports have it that if they fail to acquire Luis Suarez from Barcelona, they will approach Atletico Madrid for the availability of Alvaro Morata. The club from Turin is keen on acquiring a centre-forward and reportedly have an agreement in place with the Uruguayan. But the striker himself is yet to reach a settlement with Barcelona or even sort out the issue of his passport.

The other option they are considering is AS Roma's Eden Dzeko, but the club from the capital city are unwilling to do the business until they sign Arkadiusz Milik from Napoli. Juventus are aware of all the possibilities and thus, they are reportedly willing to offer their former striker, Alvaro Morata, a way back home. To sweeten the deal, AS reports that the Old Lady might include any one from Federico Bernardeschi, Aaron Ramsey or Douglas Costa as part of the transfer. 

Tottenham linked with Will Hughes

Tottenham Hotspur have made subtle business in the transfer market so far, having acquired the likes of Matt Doherty from Wolves, Joe Hart from Burnely and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg from Southampton. And now, Watford midfielder Will Hughes has become a sudden target for Jose Mourinho, with reports claiming that the midfielder could be available for £13million.

Mourinho is keen on rebuilding his side, and this is the reason why he is willing to allow the likes of Juan Foyth, Serge Aurier, Danny Rose and Paulo Gazzaniga to leave. The capital acquired will be invested in someone like Hughes who will provide significant competition for a place in the first team. Given his versatility, Hughes will be a handy option for Mourinho as they head into the new season.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Phil Noble

Alvaro Morata scored twice to help Atletico Madrid to a 3-0 win over relegation-haunted Mallorca on Friday and stretch their unbeaten La Liga run to 12 games.

The victory consolidated their third place on 62 points to stay well on course for a return to the Champions League next season.

Morata opened the scoring from the penalty spot in the 25th minute.

He had been fouled by Aleksandar Sedlar but then saw his spot-kick saved by Manolo Reina.

However, a Mallorcan player had encroached in the penalty area and Morata made no mistake with his second attempt.

The striker added a second goal just before the break.

Ideally set-up by Marcos Llorente, he prodded the ball into an empty net.

Koke, with a deflected shot, put away the third goal for Atletico in the 76th minute.

Feature image courtesy: AFP / Pierre-Philippe Marcou