Players who scored 20 Champions League goals the fastest - ranked

The Champions League is the pinnacle of the club game in Europe, with all the top teams and top players battling it out to be crowned the best on the continent.

That means the best of the best usually stand out, and it's no surprise that leading the way in all the honours lists are usually legends of the game. Cristiano Ronaldo is the benchmark when it comes to goals and assists in the tournament's history but he wasn't the quickest to hit the 20 goal marker.

In fact it took him 56 games to get there, and it took Lionel Messi 40 games. After Erling Haaland became the latest player to reach the milestone with a brace against Sevilla in the last 16 second leg for Dortmund, lets see who did it the quickest.

10. Marco Simone - 35 games

Maybe the most obscure name on this list, Simone was a lethal striker during his time at Milan, PSG and Monaco.

It was during his time with Les Monégasques when he scored the 20th goal of his Champions League career, in what was only his 35th game - against Rangers in a 2-2 draw.

9. Karim Benzema - 34 games

After joining Real Madrid from Lyon in 2009, Benzema has been a constant presence in their team and was key to them winning four Champions League titles in five years during the mid 2010s.

His legacy in the tournament extends beyond that though as back in 2011 he scored his 20th goal in his 34th game in the competition - a 3-0 win over Ajax at the Bernabeu.

8. Jardel - 33 games

Arguably the best striker to never get a call up to the Brazilian national team, Mario Jardel scored 170 goals in 175 games for FC Porto during his four years at the club.

He left for Galatasaray in 2000 and scored 34 times in 43 games during his only season in Turkey, including his 20th Champions League goal in only his 33rd game.

7. Rivaldo - 33 games

Another Brazilian who took Europe by storm, Rivaldo terrorised the best defences on the continent while at Barcelona in the 90s.

It took him just 33 games to hit 20 goals and he ended up retiring on 27 goals in 66 games, a huge drop in output.

6. Mario Gomez - 32 games

Mario Gomez is best known for being a goal machine during Bayern Munich's 2013 triumph, where he scored in the final at Wembley.

The season before that though he hit his 20th goal in the competition in what was only his 32nd game, as he put four past Basel in a 7-0 win to send Bayern through to the quarter-finals en route to a final against Chelsea.

5. Filippo Inzaghi - 28 games

Known for his over the top celebration no matter the type of goal he scored, 'Pippo' Inzaghi was a master poacher at his best and was key to the Milan side that won the tournament in 2002/03.

He scored his 20th goal in his 28th game in the tournament as part of a hat-trick in a 4-0 win over Deportivo La Coruna in the group stages.

4. Ruud van Nistelrooy - 27 games

The great Dutch hitman was a machine when it came to scoring goals, especially in the Champions League.

While he never won the tournament, he scored 56 in 73 games during his career and it took him just 27 games to hit the magic number 20. He did so while at Manchester United, scoring twice in a 2-1 away win at Bayer Leverkusen.

3. Alessandro Del Piero - 26 games

One of the great technicians of his time, Alessandro Del Piero is widely regarded as one of Juventus' best players ever. It's helped by the fact he's their top goalscorer ever, but also in Europe with 50 goals.

44 of them came in the Champions League, and the first 20 came in just 26 games - a record that stood from 1998 all the way up until 2019.

2. Harry Kane - 24 games

The England and Tottenham ace took the European stage by storm, hitting 20 goals in just 24 games in the competition.

His 20th strike broke the long-standing record of Del Piero, and helped Spurs to a memorable comeback win over Olympiacos in 2019 to help them through the group stages.

1. Erling Haaland - 14 games

A cyborg, a robot, a phenom - Erling Haaland was born to score goals.

The Norwegian striker made it 20 Champions League goals in just 14 games in the competition with his double over Sevilla and took him up to ten for the season so far in the tournament - four more than anyone else.

He's also the youngest player to hit the landmark, becoming the first to hit it before his 21st birthday.