World’s Highest Scoring Defenders in 1st Quarter of XXI Century
Sergio Ramos leads the category of highest scoring defenders in the world top football in the 1st Quarter of XXI Century.
In the past year, the Spaniard scored 8 goals for Monterrey and extended his career tally to 148.
Runner-up James Tavernier added 9 goals and ended the year with 125.
25 defenders in the world have notched 70+ top level goals within the century after the end of 2025; 9 of them being active.
| HIGHEST SCORING | XXI CENTURY | 2001-25 | |||||||||
| DEFENDERS | 1st QUARTER | WORLD | |||||||||
| Player | XXI | XX | Tot | Role | Country | Career | DL | DC | ICC | NT | |
| 1 | Sergio Ramos | 148 | 148 | CB | Spain | 2004- | 87 | 13 | 25 | 23 | |
| 2 | James Tavernier | 125 | 125 | RB | England | 2016- | 88 | 16 | 21 | ||
| 3 | Marcus Tulio Tanaka | 104 | 104 | CB | Japan | 2001-2019 | 75 | 18 | 3 | 8 | |
| 4 | Abderrahmane Hachoud | 103 | 103 | RB | Algeria | 2007- | 80 | 14 | 9 | ||
| 5 | Ali Maâloul | 99 | 99 | LB | Tunisia | 2009- | 66 | 6 | 24 | 3 | |
| 6 | Kendall Waston | 95 | 95 | CB | Costa Rica | 2008- | 75 | 10 | 10 | ||
| 7 | Keilor Soto | 93 | 93 | CB | Costa Rica | 2002-2021 | 92 | 1 | |||
| 8 | Boualem Khoukhi | 92 | 92 | CB | Qatar | 2009- | 51 | 9 | 10 | 22 | |
| 9 | Besnik Krasniqi | 88 | 88 | RB | Kosovo | 2009- | 82 | 3 | 3 | ||
| 10 | Markus Jürgenson | 88 | 88 | RB | Estonia | 2003-2022 | 66 | 22 | |||
| 11 | Colin Nixon | 85 | 5 | 90 | RB | Northern Ireland | 1995-2015 | 56 | 27 | 2 | |
| 12 | Colin Coates | 81 | 81 | CB | Northern Ireland | 2002-2024 | 56 | 20 | 5 | ||
| 13 | Darijo Srna | 79 | 79 | RB | Croatia | 1999-2019 | 37 | 10 | 10 | 22 | |
| 14 | Mohamed Rabie Meftah | 78 | 78 | RB | Algeria | 2004-2022 | 66 | 3 | 9 | ||
| 15 | Espen Ruud | 76 | 76 | RB | Norway | 2003-2024 | 68 | 4 | 3 | 1 | |
| 16 | Dani Alves | 75 | 75 | RB | Brazil | 2001-2023 | 40 | 11 | 16 | 8 | |
| 17 | Reinaldo | 75 | 75 | LB | Brazil | 2011- | 63 | 2 | 10 | ||
| 18 | Juninho | 75 | 75 | CB | Brazil | 2002-2018 | 62 | 11 | 2 | ||
| 19 | Roland Juhász | 74 | 74 | CB | Hungary | 1997-2020 | 55 | 5 | 8 | 6 | |
| 20 | Branislav Ivanović | 73 | 73 | CB | Serbia | 2002-2021 | 40 | 5 | 15 | 13 | |
| 21 | John Terry | 73 | 1 | 74 | CB | England | 1998-2018 | 42 | 12 | 13 | 6 |
| 22 | Naldo | 73 | 73 | CB | Brazil | 2004-2020 | 54 | 6 | 13 | ||
| 23 | George Horan | 73 | 73 | CB | England | 2000-2023 | 56 | 13 | 4 | ||
| 24 | Johan Larsson | 71 | 71 | CB | Sweden | 2010-2024 | 55 | 9 | 7 | ||
| 25 | Virgil van Dijk | 70 | 70 | CB | Netherlands | 2011- | 41 | 9 | 9 | 11 | |