Harry Kane‘s incredible 2026 is coming to an end but he still has plenty of time to make it a historic year in football.
The England captain’s tally of 50 goals in 2026 puts him close to the top 10 all-time topscorers in a single year but who are the current players in that exclusive club?
Here’s the full rundown of the most goals scored in a calendar year in football history.
The Brazilian great has his first of three entries on this list, coming in 1959.
Pele scored 64 goals in 51 matches for Santos and Brazil, putting him 10th in the overall top 10.
Mbappe’s 2025 earned him a spot in this list with 66 goals in total. currently ranks 10th on this list with 62 goals in total.
He does though, have the lowest goals-per-game ratio of anyone in the top 10 and is the only player with a ratio below one.
Ronaldo’s most prolific year of his career came in 2013, when he scored 69 goals in 59 games for club and country.
Despite his insane output, CR7 ended the calendar year of 2013 without a major trophy, although he did get his hands on the Ballon d’Or.
The Polish striker broke all sorts of scoring records in 2021 and won the league, DFL-Supercup, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
Unsurprisingly, his efforts won him numerous Golden Boots in 2021, although it wasn’t quite enough to earn him a Ballon d’Or as he finished second behind Messi that year.
Romario enjoyed his most prolific year in 2000, aged 34.
He was playing in Brazil at the time for Vasco da Gama and was still part of the Brazil squad, too. The Brazilian continued to score goals well into his late thirties before eventually retiring in 2009.
Otherwise known as the ‘white Pele’, Zico was practically unstoppable in 1979.
Considering that he wasn’t an out-and-out striker, it’s some effort that he managed to score 72 goals in a single calendar year.
While he did enjoy some success at club level with Flamengo that year, he missed out on a Copa America trophy as Brazil were beaten by Paraguay in the semi-final.
His second most prolific year came in 1965, seven years after he’d won his first World Cup with Brazil.
By this point, he was in his mid-twenties and was scoring goals for fun at both club and international level.
In the regular league season, he scored 49 goals in 28 appearances, averaging 1.75 goals per game. Crazy numbers.
Pele held the record for 14 years before Muller came along and smashed it in 1972.
He won the World Cup with Brazil that year as a teenager, scoring in the quarter-final, semi-final and final.
Up until 2012, Muller held this particular record, having scored 85 goals in the calendar year of 1972.
It was quite the year for the German forward as he won the Euros that year and scored a brace in the final, beating the Soviet Union 3-0.
Despite his goalscoring prowess, he finished second in the Ballon d’Or in 1972, finishing as runner-up to his teammate Franz Beckenbauer.
This record is going to take some beating.
Messi was at his most prolific in 2012, playing as a false-nine at Barcelona under the management of Pep Guardiola.
While the 38-year-old reigns over everyone else on this article, he recently admitted that the record doesn’t mean much to him as he’s never been the type of player to chase numbers.
“In 2012, I scored around 91 goals,” Messi said during an interview with ESPN.
“I don’t play for that, I never cared about it. It wasn’t in my mind to make an assist just to break a record or surpass someone else.
“It’s hard to choose one year [as my best]; thankfully I’ve had many very good ones.”