The oldest goalscorers in Champions League history

  • Only one player has ever scored a Champions League goal as a 40-year-old
  • Unsurprisingly, Italian clubs produce most of the entrants on this list
  • Manchester United can also boast a pair of prolific veterans
Pepe managed to get on the scoresheet of a Champions League match as a 40-year-old
Pepe managed to get on the scoresheet of a Champions League match as a 40-year-old / Quality Sport Images/GettyImages
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The two-time Champions League-winning manager Sir Alex Ferguson was obsessed with the benefits of youthful exuberance.

"For young players nothing is impossible," the legendary Manchester United boss gushed. However, there was always a place for an experienced professional in his teams. While the youth "will try and run through a barbed-wire fence," Ferguson said, "older players will try to find the gate".

To still be able to find the net, let alone a gate, at the elite European level long after your peak years, is a truly remarkable feat even Ferguson would appreciate.


Oldest goalscorers in Champions League history

10. Paolo Maldini

Paolo Maldini
Paolo Maldini seemed to get better with time / Etsuo Hara/GettyImages

Age: 36 years and 333 days
Match: Milan 3-3 Liverpool (25/05/2005)

"I played eight Champions League finals," Paolo Maldini reflected years after the showpiece against Liverpool in 2005, "but people only remember that one."

Most do not recall that game in Istanbul for Maldini's early opener at the ripe old age of 36, but rather the dramatic three-goal comeback which Liverpool embarked upon. Maldini can at least take some comfort from his five Champions League winners' medals.


9. Laurent Blanc

Man Utd v Boavista X
Laurent Blanc only scored three Champions League goals in his career / Ross Kinnaird/GettyImages

Age: 36 years and 338 days
Match: Olympiacos 2-3 Man Utd (23/10/2002)

Ferguson, that great promoter of youth, took issue with the criticism he received for signing 35-year-old Laurent Blanc in 2001. "People keep going on about his age," Ferguson huffed, "but I've had Steve Bruce at 35 and Bryan Robson at 36 playing important roles here."

Blanc only lasted two seasons at United before retiring - much to Ferguson's dismay - but still had time to score a European goal.


8. Olivier Giroud

Olivier Giroud
Olivier Giroud is ageing well in Italy / Xavier Laine/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 38 days
Match: Milan 2-1 PSG (07/11/2023)

Few players could appreciate the cliche of ageing like a fine wine as well as Olivier Giroud. The trained sommelier never had any pace to lose and has thrived in the more tempered tempo of Italian football, netting for AC Milan both home and abroad.


7. Edin Dzeko

Edin Dzeko
Edin Dzeko scored in one of the biggest Milan derbies there has ever been / Richard Sellers/Allstar/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 54 days
Match: Milan 0-2 Inter (10/05/2023)

After leading Inter to victory over arch-rivals Milan in the 2023 Italian Super Cup, Edin Dzeko was asked how old he would be on his next birthday. "I'm turning 22," he joked.

Four months later, the 37-year-old (sorry Edin) downed Milan again, opening the scoring in a feverish Champions League semi-final which was christened the 'EuroDerby'.


6. Luka Modric

Luka Modric
Luka Modric is the oldest Real Madrid player to ever score a Champions League goal / Quality Sport Images/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 54 days
Match: Real Madrid 5-1 Celtic (02/11/2022)

Somehow, Luka Modric is - and always will be - 45 days older than Wayne Rooney.

While the grizzled former England international was at the helm of DC United, his second coaching gig, Modric was still scoring for the most successful Champions League team in history on the biggest European stage.


5. Javier Zanetti

Javier Zanetti
Javier Zanetti is Inter's all-time leading appearance maker / Valerio Pennicino/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 72 days
Match: Inter 4-3 Tottenham (20/10/2010)

It would be impossible to tell what year it was by looking at a picture of Javier Zanetti. The indefatigable Argentine scarcely aged throughout his glorious two decades at Inter, loyally sticking with the same haircut.

The closest Zanetti's iconic quiff ever came to a stray hair was on the same night he scored his last Champions League goal. The right-back began the game against Tottenham Hotspur with a second-minute goal but ended it getting run around, over and through by a young Gareth Bale.


4. Filippo Inzaghi

Filippo Inzaghi
Filippo Inzaghi scored his last Champions League goal against lofty opposition / Denis Doyle/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 87 days
Match: Milan 2-2 Real Madrid (03/10/2010)

Even in the bitter winter of his career, Filippo Inzaghi was still rolling out the hits. By tucking the ball under Iker Casillas, his second of the game after coming off the bench for Milan against the mighty Real Madrid, Inzaghi became the Champions League's all-time top scorer.

For a player Ferguson famously - and unfairly - decried as born offside, it compounded the stereotype that Inzaghi notched his landmark goal from behind Madrid's backline. Fortunately for Inzaghi, he aged out of the game before VAR.


3. Ryan Giggs

Ryan Giggs
Ryan Giggs played for Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final as a 37-year-old / Laurence Griffiths/GettyImages

Age: 37 years and 290 days
Match: Benfica 1-1 Man Utd (14/09/2011)

"When I arrived, he was playing," Eric Cantona mused on his former Manchester United teammate in 2012. "Now, 15 years after I retired, he's still playing. It's crazy."

While Giggs was scoring his final Champions League goal, Cantona was appearing in his 18th feature film.


2. Francesco Totti

Francesco Totti
Almost two decades separate Francesco Totti's first and last European goals / Giuseppe Bellini/GettyImages

Age: 38 years and 59 days
Match: CSKA Moscow 1-1 Roma (25/11/2014)

Francesco Totti scored his first European goal for Roma before the DVD had been invented. His last strike in the content's premier club competition could be beamed across the globe via Twitter.

Throughout the transition from VHS to video streaming, Totti continued to find the net on the biggest stages, with each goal all that sweeter as it was scored for the club he grew up supporting.


1. Pepe

Pepe
Thumbs up for Pepe even in his fourth decade / Octavio Passos/GettyImages

Age: 40 years and 254 days
Match: Porto 2-0 Antwerp

"I know that I don't have much left," Pepe said after eking out enough to score for Porto as a 40-year-old on his mother's birthday, "but the little that I have left I will do everything possible to honour this sport."


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