Top 5 scorers in the history of the German Bundesliga
The 57th edition (2019-20) of German top flight football, the Bundesliga, kicks off this weekend. The league is renowned for having the highest average stadium attendance worldwide.
An 18-team league, the Bundesliga is one of the top four domestic competitions in Europe. The league co-efficient ranking of European football's governing body UEFA, which is based on performances in European competitions over a preceding five-year period, gave a ranking of No. 4 to the Bundesliga.
Seven-time defending champions Bayern Munich's 28 Bundesliga titles is miles ahead of the next best tallies of Borussia Monchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund (both five apiece).
Among 55 clubs to have played the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich is the only club to tally 1000 match wins (1093) and score 4000 goals (4028). The record champions also have the longest match winning streak in the Bundesliga (19).
Karl-Heinz Korbel (602) leads a group of 10 players to have made 500 Bundesliga appearances.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Klaus Allofs are the only players to have scored in 10 consecutive Bundesliga games. 16-year-old Nuri Sahin of Borrusia Dortmund is the youngest player to appear in the Bundesliga. A year later he became the youngest to score in a Bundesliga game.
Frenchman Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich is the player to win most Bundesliga titles (9) - all for the same club. Oliver Kahn has the most Bundesliga match wins (310). The legendary Bayern keeper also has the most Bundesliga clean sheets (196).
Mario Gomez, Markus Feulner, Mario Goetze and Robert Lewandowski are the only active players to have won Bundesliga titles with two different clubs. Seven players have won the Bundesliga as both player and coach.
Only five players have scored 200 or more Bundesliga goals. Let's have a closer look at this exclusive group.
#5 Robert Lewandowski (202 goals)
Robert Lewandowski 's tally of 202 Bundesliga goals (74 for Borussia Dortmund and 128 for Bayern Munich) is the fifth best in the history of the Bundesliga.
The Pole holds the record for most goals scored by a foreign player in the German top flight and the most goals by any active player.
Lewandowski has finished as the top scorer of a Bundesliga season (an award called the 'kicker Torjägerkanone') four times (2013-14 for Borussia Dortmund and 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2018-19 for Bayern Munich).
The Pole's five goals in a game against Wolfsburg in 2005-16 is a Bundesliga record for most goals scored by a substitute. In the same game Lewandowski scored the Bundesliga's fastest hat-trick, fastest four-goal and fastest five-goal hauls.
Lewandowski has featured in seven successful Bundesliga campaigns (two for Dortmund and five for Bayern), and his eight hat-tricks is the most in the competition behind Mario Gomez's 13.
#4 Manfred Burgsmuller (213 goals)
With 213 goals, Manfred Burgsmuller is the fourth most prolific scorer in Bundesliga history.
During a long career spanning stints at multiple clubs, Burgsmuller won his lone Bundesliga title with Werder Bremen in 1987-88.