While Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have earned the moniker of best free-kick takers in modern-day football, it is Brazil’s Juninho Pernambucano who has the most free-kick goals in football.
Perfecting the art of scoring goals from free-kicks have been a continuous process throughout football history. The simple reason is, while an opponent can execute positioning optimally to defend an open goal, it is tricky to execute the same from set pieces. That, however, has stopped the emergence of players like David Beckham, Roberto Carlos and more.
While Cristiano Ronaldo leads the list with most goals scored in football, his archrival Lionel Messi is ahead of him in terms of most free-kick goals. However, they are yet to find a place in the list of top ten footballers who have scored the most goals from free kicks.
Most free-kick goals: Top 10 scorers
| Rank | Player | Nationality | No. of Goals |
| 1 | Juninho Pernambucano | Brazil | 77 |
| 2 | Pele | Brazil | 70 |
| 3 | Victor Legrotaglie | Argentina | 66 |
| 4 | Ronaldinho | Brazil | 66 |
| 5 | David Beckham | England | 65 |
| 6 | Diego Maradona | Argentina | 62 |
| 7 | Zico | Brazil | 62 |
| 8 | Ronald Koeman | Netherlands | 60 |
| 9 | Marcelinho Carioca | Brazil | 59 |
| 10 | Rodrigo Ceni | Brazil | 59 |
Every team has a dedicated free-kick taker in their side, who tries his luck when a foul is won within the range of a direct free-kick. And Brazil’s Juninho Pernambucano was one such player whose record of 77 free-kick goals dubbed him the title of the best free-kick taker of all time.
Among some of the most successful free-kick takers of all time are David Beckham, Ronaldinho, Diego Maradona and more, who are etched in the mass memory for producing some of the best direct free-kicks of all time. While it is difficult to pick the greatest free-kick ever taken, most would admit it to be Robert Carlos‘ outswinger against France in the 1997 Tournoi de France tournament.
Argentina and Barcelona superstar Lionel Messi has scored 58 goals from free-kicks in his career so far, out of which 50 have come while playing for his former club Barcelona and eight in Argentina colours. On the other hand, Manchester United and Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 56 goals from free-kicks in his football career so far.
