La Liga top scorers since 2000
Top 20
Lionel Messi scored 474 La Liga goals. The second name on this list, Cristiano Ronaldo, is 163 behind him, and the two of them scored more between them than the next three players combined. No other league table on this site is distorted by two players in anything like this way.
These are the top twenty from 2000/01 onward, which is where this dataset's Spanish coverage begins. That start date matters here more than anywhere else on the site, and the note below the table says exactly what it leaves out.
| # | Player | Goals |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lionel MessiBarcelona2004/05–2020/21 | 474 |
| 2 | Cristiano RonaldoReal Madrid2009/10–2017/18 | 311 |
| 3 | Karim BenzemaReal Madrid2009/10–2022/23 | 238 |
| 4 | Antoine GriezmannAtlético Madrid, Real Sociedad, Barcelona2010/11–2025/26 | 205 |
| 5 | David VillaValencia, Barcelona, Real Zaragoza + 1 more2003/04–2013/14 | 185 |
| 6 | Luis SuárezBarcelona, Atlético Madrid2014/15–2021/22 | 178 |
| 7 | Iago AspasCelta Vigo, Sevilla2012/13–2025/26 | 170 |
| 8 | Aritz AdurizAthletic Club, Mallorca, Valencia2002/03–2019/20 | 158 |
| 9 | Samuel Eto'oBarcelona, Mallorca2000/01–2008/09 | 155 |
| 10 | Gerard MorenoVillarreal, Espanyol2014/15–2025/26 | 131 |
| 11 | RaúlReal Madrid2000/01–2009/10 | 129 |
| 12 | Roberto SoldadoValencia, Getafe, Granada + 4 more2005/06–2021/22 | 129 |
| 13 | Diego ForlánAtlético Madrid, Villarreal2004/05–2010/11 | 127 |
| 14 | Álvaro NegredoSevilla, Almería, Cádiz + 1 more2007/08–2023/24 | 127 |
| 15 | Raúl TamudoEspanyol, Rayo Vallecano, Real Sociedad2000/01–2012/13 | 126 |
| 16 | Cristhian StuaniGirona, Espanyol, Racing Santander + 1 more2010/11–2025/26 | 116 |
| 17 | Raúl GarcíaAthletic Club, Atlético Madrid, Osasuna2004/05–2023/24 | 111 |
| 18 | Gonzalo HiguaínReal Madrid2006/07–2012/13 | 107 |
| 19 | Fernando TorresAtlético Madrid2002/03–2017/18 | 103 |
| 20 | Mikel OyarzabalReal Sociedad2015/16–2025/26 | 100 |
Just outside. The next five are Ante Budimir (95), Rubén Castro (93), Fernando Llorente (89), Frédéric Kanouté (89) and Iñaki Williams (84).
What the table shows
Underneath the top two the list is genuinely Spanish rather than a Barcelona and Real Madrid roll call. Iago Aspas is seventh, almost all of it for Celta Vigo; Aritz Aduriz is eighth, most of it for Athletic Club after the age of thirty; Raúl Tamudo, Gerard Moreno and Cristhian Stuani are all there on the strength of long careers at clubs that have never won the thing.
Because the window opens in 2000/01, several players appear with a fraction of their real La Liga careers. Raúl's 129 covers only the last decade of his time at Real Madrid, and forwards whose peak fell in the nineties are missing altogether. It is an accurate table of the last twenty-five years and not a claim about all time.