By Solomon Wise
October, 2024
It is rare for a goalkeeper to find him/herself on the scoring sheet during a match, the goalkeeper is supposed to prevent goals from entering into the back of the net but unfortunately, some goalies are lucky to earn goals for their teams. The most prolific goal-scoring opportunities a goalie gets are those taken during penalties in quarter-finals, semi-finals, finals and free kicks or set pieces near the opponent’s goal area. The scenario of a goalkeeper leaving his post to join an attack is when a team may desperately need a goal to win or prevent an embarrassing defeat, here is a look at the top goal-scoring goalkeepers in football history.
ROGERIO CENI
The highest goal-scoring goalkeeper from Brazil scored 131 goals in his entire career, he was involved in 61 goals from free kicks and set pieces. He only played for Sao Paulo FC in his career and appeared 17 times for the Brazilian National team, he is currently the manager of Sao Paulo in Brazil.
HANS-JORG BUTT
Butt is a former German goalkeeper legend who played for big clubs like Bayern Munich and Bayern Leverkusen in his career. He scored 26 goals in the Bundesliga tournament and seven goals for his Nation having a total of 33 goals in his entire career.
FERNANDO PATTERSON
Retired at the age of 43, the Costa Rican goalkeeper scored a total of 35 goals in his entire career even though he made just one appearance for the Costa Rican national team, he mainly played for Guatemala’s top division clubs.
DIMITAR IVANKOV
Ivankov played for Bulgaria and Turkish top divisions for most of his professional career and scored 42 goals. While playing for Levski Sofia at one time he scored 18 goals in 203 appearances for the team and later after retirement he is the goalkeeping coach for the same team.
RENE HIGUITA
Apart from his acrobatic save against England in 1995, the former Colombian goalkeeper has scored 43 goals three of the goals he scored for the Colombian national team with sixty-eight appearances for the country.
JOHNNY FERNANDEZ
During his 13-year professional career in football, the goalkeeper from Peru scored 45 goals despite most of the goals being from penalty kicks.
JORGE CAMPOS
Campos once played as a striker at one point in his career and scored 28 goals, the Mexican legend then became a goalkeeper and recorded a total of 18 goals before hanging his gloves in 2004 having scored a total of 46 goals in his career.
PETER SCHMEICHEL
Schmeichel was the first goalkeeper to score in the Premier League back in October 2001 when Everton beat Aston Villa 3-2 through an incredible volley.
JENS LEHMANN
Before moving to Arsenal the German scored two goals at Schalke in the Bundesliga, one of the goals was a late last-minute equalizer against rivals Borussia Dortmund.
NELSON RAMOS
Ramos has never won a cup with his Colombian National squad but has scored 13 career goals as a goalkeeper, he became the first goalkeeper in history to score goals from a free kick spot in three consecutive matches.
KENNEDY MWEENE
The Zambian goalie between the years 2004-2021 has recorded a total of 14 career goals 12 of the goals coming from the penalty spot, he equalized against Nigeria in the AFCON group fixture in 2013.
Four goalkeepers have managed to score in the UEFA Champions League competition that is Hans-Jorg Butt, Sinan Bolat, Vincent Enyeama and Ivan Provedel.
Solomon Wise is a videographer with over 7 years of experience. When not writing on Respbet he works for various projects in graphics design and videography