Top 10 All-time Serie A goal scorers

Long considered one of the best, if not the best, league(s) in all of Europe, the Italian Serie A has played host to a procession of legendary figures; homegrown, or otherwise, for nearly one hundred years since its inception in 1929. During that period, the likes of Francesco Totti, Alessandro Del Piero, and a host of star names have been at the forefront of football in all corners of the peninsula.

But who are the top ten goal scorers of all time? And why isn’t Gabriel Batistuta one of them? 101 Great Goals takes a look.

=10: Alberto Gilardino – 188 (Piacenza, Hellas Verona, Parma, AC Milan, Fiorentina, Genoa, Bologna, Palermo)

A cult hero in Italy after his fantastic return at all international youth levels placed big expectations on his shoulders, Gilardino perhaps did not have the mainstay career that many expected, but his overall goal return across a career that spanned eighteen seasons is hardly anything to scoff at. His best seasons came between 2003-05 with Parma where he scored 46 Serie A goals in just two seasons after taking his first season to settle after a move from Verona. He would go on to be very effective for Milan, and even more with Fiorentina, where he remains fondly remembered.

=10: Alessandro Del Piero – 188 (Juventus)

One of just two one-club men to appear on this list – and you certainly already know who the other one is, Alessandro Del Piero helped define a golden era of Italian football while being the face of one of the nation’s most-storied footballing institutions. The versatile forward offered a wonderful package of technical elegance, creativity, set-piece wizardly, and goalscoring prowess that pushed Juventus to the pinnacle of achievement that included fourteen major honors, including six of the club’s Serie A titles while also becoming the club’s all-time leading goalscorer in the process.

=10: Giuseppe Signori – 188 (Foggia, Lazio, Sampdoria, Bologna)

An icon in the Italian capital during a brilliant five-year stint with Lazio in one of the high water marks of football in Italy, “Beppe” Signori was an incredibly gifted goalscorer in his own right and his fantastic strike rate for I Biancocelesti (107 goals in 152 Serie A matches) saw him take home the Capocannoniere on three occasions. Though he never won the league during his fourteen years in the top flight of Italian football, Signori was a wonderful advert to what is now a bygone era on the peninsula. But what an era it was.

9: Kurt Hamrin – 190 (Juventus, Padova, Fiorentina, AC Milan, Napoli)

One of two Swedes on the list, the Stockholm native first rose to prominence at domestic giants AIK before eventually finding his way to the top flight of Italian football in 1956 with Juventus. His time in Turin was hardly incredible and lasted just one season, but a rebirth with Padova the following season that saw him score 20 in 30 appearances eventually saw Fiorentina come calling, and it is where Hamrin made his name. After 289 appearances in Firenze, Hamrin hit 150 goals while helping the club to two Coppa Italia wins as well as a Cup Winners’ Cup triumph.

8: Ciro Immobile* – 191 (Genoa, Torino, Lazio)

7: Roberto Baggio – 205 (Fiorentina, Juventus, AC Milan, Bologna, Inter Milan, Brescia)

“Roberto Baggio was the best Italian fantasista; he was better than Meazza and Boniperti, and he was amongst the greatest of all time, right behind Maradona, Pelé, and maybe Cruyff. Without the injury problems and the difficulties with his knees, he would have been the very best player in history.” Former Brescia manager Carlo Mazzone’s words on the Italian great say it all. Widely regarded as one of the best players to ever grace a football pitch anywhere in the world, it is a shame that Baggio will forever be associated with his penalty shootout miss at the 1994 World Cup. A delightfully elegant player who added goals for fun when it came to his position on the pitch, Baggio’s legacy is undeniable while remaining lauded in all corners of the country.

6: Antonio Di Natale – 209 (Empoli, Udinese)

A two-time Capocannoniere winner and former Serie A Italian Footballer of the Year (2010), Udinese legend Antonio Di Natale’s twelve seasons in Friuli will forever be remembered by Udine supporters while going down as one of the best “fan favorite” careers to date. During a four-year period from 2009-10 to 2012-13, the Naples-born forward hit 103 Serie A goals for Le Zebrette, while also eclipsing the 10-goal mark for another five seasons surrounding his high-water-mark. Though his goalscoring exploits never amounted to a single trophy-lifting ceremony, Di Natale is a cult hero if there ever was one.

=4: José Altafini – 216 (AC Milan, Napoli, Juventus)

The Brazilian-born striker has a unique claim to fame for playing in back-to-back World Cups (1958 & 1962) for Brazil and Italy, being a part of the ‘58 Brazil side that won it all. But when it comes to his career in Serie A, Altafini is regarded as one of AC Milan’s greatest-ever players, and certainly one of the most gifted to ever ply his trade in Lombardy. Currently a pundit on Sky Italia, Altafini was top of the world with Milan between 1958 and 1965, scoring 120 goals in 205 Serie A appearances, before eventually moving on to Napoli and Juventus to add a further 96 in 254 outings. A technical striker who had a complete profile, he first made his name with Palmeiras after scoring 89 goals in just two years but remains beloved in northern Italy.

=4: Giuseppe Meazza – 216 (Inter Milan, AC Milan, Juventus)

Great to the point where one of the most iconic grounds in world football bears your name, “Peppino” Meazza is widely viewed as one of the greatest players in football history while also largely being considered the greatest player to ever emerge from the Italian peninsula. Though he had stints with AC Milan and Juventus, Meazza’s eleven seasons with Inter Milan saw him elevated to become the first Italian football player to achieve fame on the world stage, and his on-pitch rivalry with Silvio Piola was in a similar vein to Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. To this day, many consider Meazza not just the best Italian player of all time, but a technician that no one – not even Pelé or Maradona – has ever matched.

3: Gunnar Nordahl – 225 (AC Milan, AS Roma)

The second Swede to feature, Nordahl was so much more than just a Scandinavian import. Many outside of Italy and Sweden have perhaps never heard of his exploits in Milan, but the Hörnefors-born striker went on to become the most prolific goalscorer in Serie A history between his stints in Milan and in the capital with AS Roma, hitting 225 goals in 291 appearances for a goals/game ratio of 0.77 while spending a little over nine seasons in Italy. His 43 goals in 33 matches for Sweden is also an incredible feat, with Nordahl truly being one of the most gifted goal-scorers in football history. His five Capocannoniere awards still stand as a Serie A record today.

2: Francesco Totti – 250 (AS Roma)

A born and bred Roman through and through, Italian legend Francesco Totti is the ultimate “one club man” after spending his entire professional career with AS Roma; emerging from their academy in 1993. During a career at the highest level that lasted until 2017, Totti set a veritable laundry list of club records for I Giallorossi; All-Time Leading Goalscorer, All-Time Leading Goalscorer in Serie A, All-Time Leading Goalscorer in the Champions League, All-Time Leading Goalscorer in the Europa League, All-Time Leading Goalscorer in UEFA Competitions, All-Time Appearance leader, All-Time Appearance leader in Serie A, All-Time Appearance Maker in the Champions League, All-Time Appearance Maker in the Europa League, and All-Time Appearance Maker in UEFA competitions. Roma is Totti, and Totti is Roma.

1: Silvio Piola – 274 (Pro Vercelli, Lazio, Juventus, Novara)

It is not every day that a player across the history of Italian football helped craft their legendary figure at clubs that, by today’s standards are hardly giants. Apart from his spell at Lazio, Serie A all-time leading goalscorer and Italian icon, Silvio Piola, spent many years crafting his image at former early league giant Pro Vercelli and Novara on either side of his fantastic stint in the capital. Though he never won a Serie A title, Piola was one of the first Italian players to truly transcend time, along with the aforementioned Meazza, who it can be said had the better overall career by comparison. Still, Piola was ahead of his time due to his fantastic overall player profile while he exhibited fantastic characteristics in support of his goalscoring instincts.