The 25 best strikers in world football - ranked

You can have the most technical inverted full-back, the most powerful box-to-box midfielder, and the silkiest playmaker in the world, but they’re all pretty irrelevant if your side isn’t blessed with a player who knows how to put the ball in the back of the net on a regular basis. 

Now, the sport's evolution has facilitated the diversification of goalscoring, and strikers are no longer merely tasked with hitting the target. Still, it’s their primary goal (pun very much intended), right? 

However, when assessing the very best strikers in the world, the rate at which they score isn't the be-all and end-all. The development and subsequent complexity of the role mean various factors have to be accounted for.

Here are our top 25 strikers in the world right now as part of our 2023 Welcome to World Class series.

Remarkably only 18 years old, Evan Ferguson has made scoring goals in the Premier League look easy in recent months.

His hat trick against a strong Newcastle United side has gotten Brighton and Ireland fans very, very excited about his future.

Cristiano Ronaldo, THE Cristiano Ronaldo…at 24! Here come the CR7 stans. 

Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time, but he's no longer one of the very best in the world. Only the most ardent of Ronaldo supporters would disagree. Signs of the demise were evident during his time at Juventus, but he was still able to score at an alarming rate.

Under Andrea Pirlo, though, while he continued to find the back of the net, some would argue he was more of a hindrance in the progressive system.

He carried the goalscoring load at Manchester United in 2021/22 — impressively scoring 18 times in the Premier League — but he was let go only a few months later and is now plying his