⚽Records

Soccer's records span more than a century and eras of wildly different conditions, from heavy leather balls on ploughed pitches to today's tracked, globalized game. Some marks — a single tournament's goal haul, the largest crowd in the sport's history — look permanent; others are rewritten almost yearly by the two forwards who defined the modern age.

The figures below are drawn from recognized competitive records. Where career totals blur the line between official matches and friendlies, or where old attendances were never precisely counted, the most widely accepted number is given, with the year the record was set or last extended.