There is no more scrutinised job in football than leading the line. We ranked the great strikers on peak ferocity, the volume and quality of their goals, and what they did on the biggest nights.

1. 1

   Ronaldo Nazário

   Brazil · 1993–2011

   O Fenômeno at his peak combined power, pace and finishing in a way nobody has matched before or since.

2. 2

   Gerd Müller

   Bayern Munich · Germany

   Der Bomber scored at a rate that still defies belief — the most efficient poacher the game has produced.

3. 3

   Marco van Basten

   AC Milan · Netherlands

   The most aesthetically perfect centre-forward; a career cut short but a highlight reel that never ages.

4. 4

   Robert Lewandowski

   Bayern / Barcelona · Poland

   A relentless modern machine — five goals in nine minutes, and two decades at the elite level.

5. 5

   Romário

   Barcelona · Brazil

   The box was his kingdom; a thousand goals and the coolest finisher of the 1990s.

6. 6

   Thierry Henry

   Arsenal · France

   A winger reborn as a striker who made scoring look like art, and Arsenal’s Invincibles inevitable.

7. 7

   Gabriel Batistuta

   Fiorentina · Argentina

   Batigol — the most powerful, purest striker of his generation, adored in Florence.

8. 8

   Alan Shearer

   Newcastle United · England

   The Premier League’s all-time top scorer, an old-fashioned English number nine in excelsis.

9. 9

   Ruud van Nistelrooy

   Manchester United · Netherlands

   A penalty-box predator who barely scored from outside it — and barely needed to.

10. 10

    Erling Haaland

    Manchester City · Norway

    The most fearsome goal threat in the modern game, already rewriting the record books in his twenties.

A LeaguePaper editorial ranking — opinion, offered for argument.