The World's best Top Division Goal Scorer 2012:

Lionel Messi ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo !

The Argentinian is also The World‘s most effective Top Division Goal Scorer 2012

The IFFHS determines the World’s best Top Division Goal Scorer annually from the 60 strongest leagues of the previous year. The national championship must then be copmleted in the year of the rating. For the Latin American countries, which play Apertura and Clausura during a season, both tournaments are considered as a single championship. In 2012 83 players from the 60 top leagues scored 20 or more goals in their national championship. It is also remarkable that the number of players in the 60 national top leagues, who scored 20 and more goals, has increased substantrially in the last three years: 2010 (57 players), 2011 (64), 2012 (83). Nevertheless, in 20 of these 60 top leagues the most successful goal scorer in 2012 scored fewer than 20 goals.

The aforementioned 83 players comprise 48 different nationalities. Among the 83 players, who managed to score 20 or more goals in their national championships, there are nine Brazilians, six Argentinians, four each of Dutchmen, Uruguayans, Frenchmen and Belgians as well as three Colombians. Forty  of these 83 players are European, 27 South American, seven Asian, five African and four from the CONCACAF area, but none from Oceania.

The world ranking 2012 is headed, with a large lead, by probably the world‘s two best footballers, who both play in the extremely strong Spanish Primera División. During the 2011/12 season the Argentinian Lionel Messi and the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, with 50and 46 goals respectively, have performed magnificently. But already in this century seven other players (six of whom were from Latin America) have scored more than 40 championship goals in a season, the Bolivian José Alfredo Castillo has even managed it twice. The highest number of goals in this century was achieved the Paraguayan José Saturano Cardozo, who scored 58 goals in the 2002/2003 season in the Mexican Primera División. And the last player, to twice become The World‘s best Top Division Goal Scorer,  was the Brazilian Mário Jardel (1999 & 2000).

In this century no player has yet managed to twice become The World‘s best Top Division Goal Scorer. And it should be noted that before World War I there were five players who were multiple The World‘s best Top Division Goal Scorer: the two Scotsmen John Middleton Campbell (1892, 1893, 1895) and Robert Cunningham Hamilton (1899, 1904), the two Englishmen John Southworth (1891, 1894) and Stephen Bloomer (1896, 1897, 1901). Also the Hungarian Imre Schlosser became in 1915 for the 4th time The World‘s best Top Division Goal Scorer when he scored 45 goals. His equally world-famous countryman Alfréd Schaffer scored 46 championship goals in the 1917/18 season. Such extraordinary achievements were matched by other players in the following decades but the global reality is that have not been recognized by many in the media (ignorance).

Since the clubs in the leagues of the individual countries have to play a varying number of matches, the IFFHS also determines the annual World’s most effective Top Division Goal Scorer. Only those players who have scored at least 20 goals in the 60 strongest leagues are taken into consideration. The number of goals they scored is divided by the number of league appearances. In 2012 the most successful top division goal scorer was once again also the most effective goalscorer - Lionel Andrés Messi (FC Barcelona) who achieved a goal quotient of ø 1,351 (goals per appearance) ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid CF / ø 1,211), who as in 2011 was the second most effective (ø 1,250).