Messi & Ronaldo 

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It was another milestone afternoon in Harry Kane’s incredible goalscoring career on Saturday when he scored a brace for Bayern Munich against Werder Bremen. The 32-year-old netted his 100th penalty, but more notably his second effort brought up an exceptional milestone – it was the 500th goal of his career.

The majority of those goals arrived for Tottenham Hotspur (280) but he’s now notched 126 goals in 131 appearances for Bayern Munich. It seems crazy to suggest but Bayern’s €95 million acquisition of Kante in 2023 is arguably a bargain given his superb goalscoring output. Kane has also netted 78 goals for England, nine for Millwall, five for Leyton Orient and twice for Leicester to reach the milestone. Kane required 743 games to reach the landmark, but how does that ranks amongst the quickest players to score 500 goals?

Players to score 500 career goals in fewest games

We’ve analysed the numbers from 2000 with only seven stars reaching the 500 goal landmark. The reason for limiting the data to this century was to avoid inconsistencies as it’s difficult to truly authenticate the numbers of players from yesteryear like Pele and Romario. As the graphic below illustrates, Kane is the third fastest player to score 500 goals this century.

Lionel Messi ranks first with the Barcelona legend requiring just 632 games and the 38-year-old could feasibly hit 1,000 goals as he is currently on 902. Robert Lewandowski occupies second place after scoring 500 goals in just 743 games. Cristiano Ronaldo (753) and Luis Suárez (802) complete the top five with Zlatan Ibrahimović (845) and Karim Benzema (963) the two other players to reach the milestone this century.