12 Fastest Players to Reach 100 Goals for a Club

In football, nothing holds more value than goals. They are the heartbeat of the beautiful game, the pulse that fuels its drama and chaos. Without them, the storylines would fall flat, leaving scriptwriters grasping for inspiration. This is why clubs spend hundreds of millions each summer in the relentless pursuit of a prolific goalscorer.

While some transfers fail to live up to their promise, others deliver magic. In this article, we celebrate those rare talents – the fastest players to reach 100 goals for their clubs, after Harry Kane netted his 100th Bayern Munich goal against Werder Bremen to dethrone Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo.

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Before his eyebrow-raising move to Atletico Madrid in 1997, Christian Vieri was thriving at Juventus, where he helped win the Serie A title and reach the Champions League final. After averaging a goal per game during one season in Spain, he returned to Italy with Lazio. Throughout the ’90s, Vieri changed clubs seven times in seven seasons before settling at Milan, where he scored 123 goals in 190 games, despite winning only one Coppa Italia.

Robert Lewandowski, already a star with Borussia Dortmund, famously scored four goals against Real Madrid in the 2013 Champions League semi-final and continued his prolific form at Bayern Munich, nearly surpassing Gerd Muller’s 365 Bundesliga goals but instead settling for breaking his record for most goals in a single season with 41 in 2020-21.

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Meanwhile, Edinson Cavani, who became PSG’s all-time top scorer after surpassing Ibrahimovic, enjoyed an impressive late-career spell at Manchester United. However, his best years were arguably at Napoli, where he netted 104 goals in 138 games between 2010 and 2013, nearly achieving Maradona-like status had he played in a stronger team.

Finally, Kylian Mbappe burst onto the scene as a teenager during Monaco’s 2016-17 Champions League run and Ligue 1 title win, prompting PSG to sign him the same summer they spent €222 million on Neymar. Though he never brought European glory to PSG, his move to Real Madrid after scoring 100 goals in his first 137 games represents his next big challenge as he looks to finally add big ears to his sparkling cabinet.

6= Ruud Van Nistelrooy (Manchester United) – 131 games

Sir Alex Ferguson had to exercise patience before the Dutch striker finally arrived at Manchester United, as an initial move was delayed due to a cruciate knee ligament injury. However, that setback didn’t diminish Ruud Van Nistelrooy’s poacher’s instinct, and he proved well worth the wait, making an immediate impact from day one.

In 2001, Van Nistelrooy made his Man United debut at Old Trafford against Fulham, scoring two goals in a 3-2 win. 130 games later, and he joined the Red Devils’ 100 club. Usually, this is where a writer would say ‘exclusive’, but with 16 players reaching that mark, the 20-time Premier League champions have hardly ever been without a prolific marksman.

6= Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) – 131 games

Five-time Ballon d’Or-winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, had won the Champions League in four of his last five years at Real Madrid and was (and still is) the competition’s all-time top scorer. So there was a certain degree of logic when Juventus signed him in 2018, as the final piece of the puzzle to win the Champions League, having long since conquered domestic Italian football.

Things didn’t unfold as hoped, with surprising exits to Ajax, Lyon, and Porto. Nevertheless, Ronaldo continued to find the back of the net with relative ease in Italy, reaching the remarkable milestone of 100 goals in just 131 appearances across all competitions. His relentless pursuit of excellence remains undeterred, solidifying his legacy as a true goalscoring machine, as this isn’t the final time he features in this article.

5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (PSG) – 124 games

In a journeyman career that saw the giant Swedish man venture to both sides of Milan, as well as Man United, Ajax, Barcelona, and PSG, Zlatan Ibrahimovic didn’t chase goals, goals chased him. And it was with the latter where he was most lethal.

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Ibrahimovic had already won four Serie A titles with three different clubs, two Eredivisie titles with Ajax, and a La Liga title with Barcelona when he became a statement signing for newly-minted PSG in 2012. Not only did he win the title in each of his four years in the French capital, but he scored at least 30 goals in each, peaking with 50 goals in 51 appearances in his final season there, delivering on his promises of being a reliable frontman in an up and coming band.

4. Luis Suarez (Barcelona) – 120 games

The third-fastest player to such a milestone is none other than Luis Suarez who, after making the move from Liverpool to Barcelona – becoming the club’s record signing in the process in 2014 – took 120 games to reach triple figures.

Having served a four-match ban for all football activities, dished out by FIFA after he chomped on Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup in Brazil, he was quite literally chomping at the bit once he was able to sink his boots into the turf at the Camp Nou, fitting into a devastating attack alongside Neymar and Lionel Messi. – arguably the best attacking trident the beautiful game has ever seen. Suarez scored 25 goals in 39 appearances as Barcelona won the treble in 2014-15, and didn’t slow down from there, scoring 59 goals the following year, and eventually 198 across his six years there.

2= Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid) – 105 games

Remarkably, what Cristiano Ronaldo has over Haaland is the fact he features twice in the list of top 10 fastest players to reach 100 goals at a single club, with the 39-year-old having also achieved the feat in 130 games with Real Madrid, after having achieved the extraordinary with Juventus, as aformentioned.

Florentino Perez’s second Galactico project began in 2009 with the world-record signing of Ronaldo, who joined after securing three consecutive Premier League titles with Manchester United. The Portuguese icon had to wait for silverware, finishing his first season empty-handed and claiming only the Copa del Rey in his second. However, scoring goals was never an issue for him. Once all was said and done in the Spanish capital, he netted 451 goals in 438 appearances, becoming the club’s all-time top goalscorer.

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2= Erling Haaland (Manchester City) – 105 games

When Haaland bagged his 10th goal in five Premier League games in the 2023-24 season, he had managed something quite astonishing. It followed a campaign in which he registered another two hat-tricks in England’s top flight, against Ipswich Town and West Ham, as the Cityzens sought an immediate return to the top of the table.

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In a world where artificial intelligence and robot life forms threaten to steal the everyday person’s job, there appears to be not even a speck of sweat on Erling Haaland’s forehead. Then again, considering just how machine-like his goalscoring performances for Manchester City have been, since joining the club two summers ago, there’s a genuine concern that he himself isn’t human.

1. Harry Kane (Bayern Munich) – 104 games

The question marks that arose when Harry Kane opted to leave boyhood club Tottenham for Bayern Munich were primarily because he was chasing Alan Shearer’s Premier League all-time goalscoring record. The England skipper wanted a new challenge to finally get his hands on a piece of silverware.

That came to fruition at the second time of asking when Kane hit a remarkable tally of 26 goals in 31 Bundesliga games as the Bavarians reclaimed their title. At 32 one may expect Spurs’ all-time top scorer to start slowing down but he’s proving that age is just a number and a brace in a 4-0 win over Werder Bremen saw him eclipse Ronaldo and Haaland as the fastest player to 100 goals.

It’s no mystery why Premier League clubs are thought to be circling for his signature because of a release clause that has now become common knowledge. You wouldn’t put it past Kane to return to English football and break his own record.