Last weekend, Cristiano Ronaldo broke Josef Bican's record for the most goals by a single player in the history of men's professional football.The 37-year-old scored a magnificent hat-trick for Manchester United in a 3-2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford.Ronaldo has now found the back of the net an astonishing 807 times for club and country, a total which almost beggars belief.The five-time Ballon d'Or winner's record haul will likely remain intact for decades to come, with Lionel Messi the only man who stands a chance of surpassing him.However, while the Paris Saint-Germain superstar has scored fewer goals, there is one department in which he's superior to Ronaldo and that is goals-per-game.Messi boasts a record of 0.79 in that regard, while Ronaldo is on 0.73 at the time of writing.But Messi's impressive ratio is far from the best among the 30 highest goalscorers in the history of football, according to the folks over at Neogol.Amazingly, the Argentine genius has to settle for joint-16th place and you can check out who's ahead of him by going through our 30-man list below.
30. Rivaldo (Brazil) - 0.43
Games: 1033 | Goals: 446
29. Henrik Larsson (Sweden) - 0.54
Games: 874 | Goals: 471
28. Hugo Sanchez (Mexico) - 0.58
Games: 883 | Goals: 516
=26. Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden) - 0.60
Games: 956 | Goals: 572
=26. Roberto Dinamite (Brazil) - 0.60
Games: 838 | Goals: 507
25. Luis Suarez (Uruguay) - 0.61
Games: 846 | Goals: 517
=23. Zico (Brazil) - 0.68
Games: 773 | Goals: 522
=23. Alberto Spencer (Ecuador) - 0.68
Games: 662 | Goals: 451
22. Jimmy Greaves (England) - 0.71
Games: 660 | Goals: 466
=20. Alfredo Di Stefano (Argentina) - 0.72
Games: 706 | Goals: 509
=20. Robert Lewandowski (Poland) - 0.72
Games: 797 | Goals: 576
19. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - 0.73
Games: 1111 | Goals: 807
18. Dixie Dean (England) - 0.74
Games: 601 | Goals: 442
=16. Jef Mermans (Belgium) - 0.79
Games: 629 | Goals: 500
=16. Lionel Messi (Argentina) - 0.79
Games: 960 | Goals: 759
15. Romario (Brazil) - 0.80
Games: 961 | Goals: 772
14. Uwe Seeler (Germany) - 0.83
Games: 592 | Goals: 489
13. Stjepan Bobek (Croatia/Yugoslavia) - 0.87
Games: 554 | Goals: 480
11. Gunnar Nordahl (Sweden) - 0.91
Games: 548 | Goals: 498
=10. Eusebio (Portugal) - 0.92
Games: 596 | Goals: 547
=10. Pele (Brazil) - 0.92
Games: 831 | Goals: 767
9. Gerd Muller (Germany) - 0.93
Games: 793 | Goals: 735
8. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) - 0.99
Games: 746 | Goals: 741
7. Jimmy McGrory (Scotland) - 1.02
Games: 515 | Goals: 528
=5. Ferenc Bene (Hungary) - 1.03
Games: 493 | Goals: 508
=5. Gyula Zsengellér (Hungary) - 1.03
Games: 433 | Goals: 448
4. Jimmy Jones (Northern Ireland) - 1.05
Games: 614 | Goals: 647
3. Imre Schlosser (Hungary) - 1.22
Games: 388 | Goals: 475
2. Isidro Lángara (Spain) - 1.27
Games: 414 | Goals: 525
1. Josef Bican (Czech Republic) - 1.51
Games: 530 | Goals: 805
So, among the active players in the list above, Messi possesses the best goals-per-game ratio.
But he is still nowhere close to matching those at the top, with Bican's astounding record of 1.51 virtually impossible to equal in the modern game.