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Revealed: The Top 11 Highest Scoring Defenders Of All Time

Revealed: The Top 11 Highest Scoring Defenders Of All Time

Sergio Ramos scored the 110th goal of his career last week, granting him entry to a very exclusive club.

Anonymous

Anonymous

By Tom Sanders

Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos celebrated his 110th goal for the club during their victory over Leganes last week.

The goal places Ramos in a very small yet prestigious group of defenders who have achieved the same feat- but where does the Blancos legend rank in the list?

Courtesy of TalkSPORT, here's the list of the top 11 highest scoring defenders of all time.

11. Sinisa Mihajlovic - 105 goals

The Yugoslavian defender scored ten goals for his country and found the net over 61 times in Serie A whilst playing for four different Italian sides- Roma, Lazio, Inter, and Sampdoria.

Mihajlovic was also renowned as a dead-ball specialist, and holds the joint record for most free kicks scored along with Andrea Pirlo in the Italian top flight.

10. Franz Beckenbauer - 109 goals

The former West Germany captain pioneered the role of sweeper in the modern game and scored a bucketload of goals in the process too, scoring 109 goals over the course of 19 years.

Famed for his creativity and shrewd footballing intelligence, he played the majority of his career at Bayern Munich where he netted 64 goals in 439 appearances.

9. Sergio Ramos - 110 goals

The newest entry to the list, Ramos scores big goals in big games, and he does it often too.

Ramos has scored over 50 goals in La Liga, as well as chipping in with crucial goals in Champions League finals and in a number of derbies against bitter rivals Atletico Madrid.

This season he has scored seven goals since taking over from Cristiano Ronaldo as his side's main penalty taker.

Image: PA
Image: PA

8. Roberto Carlos - 113 goals

Whilst primarily famous for scoring arguably the greatest free-kick of all time, Roberto Carlos is also world-renowned as one of the all-time great attacking full-backs, and has the goalscoring record to match.

As part of the famous 'Galacticos' Madrid squad of the early 2000's, The Brazilian found the net 113 times throughout his career, with most of is goals coming from dead-balls and set pieces.

The ultimate free-kick specialist.

Roberto Carlos
Roberto Carlos

7: Paul Breitner - 113 goals

Along with his teammate and countryman Beckenbauer, Breitner was a key figure behind Bayern and West Germany's unprecedented success in the mid-70s.

Although he moved to midfield in the latter stages of his career, he was predominantly a defender and got most of his goals from the backline.

Breitner scored most of his goals for Bayern and is one of just four players to have scored in two World Cup finals.

6: Steve Bruce - 113 goals

The former Manchester United man and long-suffering manager was once a prolific goalscorer, scoring mostly for United but also chipping in for Gillingham, Norwich, Birmingham and Sheffield United throughout his career.

His most prolific season came in 1990/91 when he scored 19 times for Man United under Alex Ferguson in all competitions.

5: Graham Alexander - 130 goals

The Scottish journeyman was a right-back for many clubs over the years, including Burnley, Scunthorpe, Luton and Preston North End.

Many of his goals came from set-pieces- he was often the first choice for spot-kicks and penalties, but also had a knack at scoring from open play, chipping in with many goals from right-back over the years.

Despite his prolific goalscoring record though he never once found the net whilst playing for Scotland.

4. Laurent Blanc - 153 goals

The former France manager started his career as an attacking midfielder for Montpelier but dropped back to defence in his later years, becoming an effective sweeper and netting 80 goals in eight years with the club- most of which came from set-pieces.

Blanc also managed o score 16 times whilst playing for France, with his most famous goal being the being the Golden Goal winner against Paraguay in his nation's last-16 tie of the 1998 World Cup.

Blanc Barthez
Blanc Barthez

3: Fernando Hierro - 163 goals

Hierro captained both Spain and Real Madrid throughout his career, earning a reputation as one of Spanish football's all-time greats thanks to his prolific goalscoring ability.

Possessing an incredible aerial threat at corners and a presence that Madrid never truly managed to replace, Hierro's goal tally came mostly through set-pieces, although he proved himself to be a constant threat to his opponent every time he entered their final third.

He also scored in the Premier League for Bolton Wanderers.

2: Daniel Passarella - 175 goals

Arguably South America's best ever defender, the Argentine had an astounding goalscoring ability.

In fact, if not for sharing a country with some of the game's all-time greatest goalscorers such as Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona, Passarella would be in with a serious shout for being the greatest player to ever play for Argentina.

He captained his nation to World Cup glory in both 1978 and 1986 and continued to be a devastating threat in front of goal for the whole of his career.

1: Ronald Koeman - 253 goals

Boasting a goalscoring record that any centre forward would be jealous of, the prolific Dutchman holds the title of highest-scoring defender and is likely to retain that title for a long, long time.

He once scored 26 goals in a single season for PSV and was also instrumental for Barcelona in his time with the Catalan giants, netting 19 goals twice in two different seasons for the Blaugrana.

It should surprise no-one that Koeman took a lot of free-kicks and penalties, but you don't rack up a record like that just from set-pieces. Ronald Koeman was the complete package.

His most important strike came in 1992, when his extra-time free-kick against Sampdoria that handed Barcelona their first ever European Cup.


Featured Image Credit:

Topics: Football News, Sergio Ramos, Football, Real Madrid