Who are Serie A's All-Time Top Scorers?

Silvio Piola is Serie A’s all-time top goalscorer having scored an impressive 274 goals in 537 matches, averaging 0.51 goals per game.

The former Italy forward’s goals came between 1929 and 1954 for the likes of Pro Vercelli (51), Lazio (143), Juventus (10) and Novara (70) in what was a very impressive career path which even saw him fire in 30 in 34 appearances for his national side.

Piola actually never managed to win Serie A, which in itself is a great shame due to his goalscoring record, having finished as a runner-up with Lazio in 1936/37, as well as with Juventus in both 1945/46 and 1946/47, meaning that his only league title came in the shape of Serie B with Novara in 1947/48.

Piola’s crowning glory however was winning the World Cup with Italy back in 1938, earning a place in the team of the tournament as he scored a brace for the Azzuri in their 4-2 victory over Hungary in the World Cup final.

Legendary AS Roma forward Francesco Totti is the most recent entry in Serie A’s top five goalscorers of all time, having knocked former Udinese striker Antonio Di Natale off this list by scoring 250 in 619 for the Stadio Olimpico club.

Totti’s first Serie A appearance came all the way back in 1993 at just 16 years of age, having been part of the squad that beat Brescia 2-0 under Vujadin Boskov. Who would have thought that he would be one of the most talismanic figures in the club’s history.

The 45-year-old actually played a number of roles throughout his career, doing so as a left-winger, attacking playmaker and then as a striker later on in his career.

At Roma, Totti won five trophies, playing a part in their last Serie A success in 2000/2001, scoring 13 goals in 30 appearances behind a deadly strike duo of Vincenzo Montella and Gabriel Batistuta. Since then, Totti has won the Coppa Italia twice, as well as the Supercoppa Italiana twice, with his best goalscoring season being the 26 he managed in 2006/07.

Like Pioli, Totti also managed to win the World Cup, doing so with Italy back in 2006, playing all seven matches, finishing with four assists, the most of any player in the tournament alongside Argentina’s Juan Roman Riquelme.

Gunnar Nordahl is the Italian top-flight’s third all-time top goalscorer, however, his record is arguably the most impressive of them all, having scored a sensational 225 goals in 291 appearances, averaging 0.77 goals per game.

The Swede plied his trade at AC Milan between 1949 and 1956, scoring 210 goals in 257 matches, before managing 15 in 34 for Roma in the two years preceding his time at the San Siro. During his career in Italy’s top flight, he managed to win the Serie A twice in 1950/51 and 1954/55 with the Rossoneri, as well as two Latin Cups. He won the Golden Boot five times too.

Nordahl’s international record for Sweden was even more impressive, as he managed 43 goals in 33 caps, helping them to a Gold Medal at the 1948 Olympics.

Prior to his move to the San Siro, Nordahl had helped Norrkoping to four Swedish titles in a row with a staggering record of 93 goals in 95 games.

You have to be an incredible player for a club with the history and tradition of Inter Milan to name a stadium after you, which Giuseppe Meazza was, finding the back of the net 216 times in 367 appearances for three different teams in Italy’s top-flight - an average of 0.57 goals per game.

Meazza was an Inter academy graduate, before making 348 league appearances for the Nerazzurri between 1927 and 1940, scoring 240 goals, with 45 of these being in the Divisione Nazionale.

After this incredible spell, Meazza made a shock move across town to AC Milan, with stark levels of success to that he had in the blue half of Milan, scoring nine in 37 games, before signing for Juventus in 1942/43, adding 10 to his tally in 27 matches. After just one year at Juve, Meazza played two seasons outside of the top-flight for Varese and Atalanta, before making a return to Inter as player-coach, scoring twice in 17 matches.

Meazza won the World Cup in both 1934 and 1938 with Italy, as well as the Serie A on three occasions, as well as the Coppa Italia in 1938/39. He also went on to manage Inter between 1946-48, as well as in 1955/56 and 1957.

Remarkably, Jose Altafini is the second most recent player to have played in Serie A’s top five goalscorers of all time, despite leaving Juventus back in 1976.

The 83-year-old had two superb seasons at Palmeiras between 1956 and 1958, scoring 89 goals in 114 matches, seeing AC Milan move quickly to snap up the Brazilian’s signature. This proved to be the correct decision, as he managed 120 goals in 205 league matches at the San Siro, helping AC to win the league title in 1958/59 and 1961/62, as well as the European Cup in 1962/63.

The latter trophy was arguably Altafini’s best moment in a Milan shirt, as he scored a brace in the final as they beat Benfica 2-1 in the final to secure the Rossoneri’s first-ever European Cup triumph. Altafini finished the campaign as the top scorer in this competition with 14 goals.

Altafini would then move to Napoli in 1965 until 1972, firing in 71 goals in 180, before switching to Juventus, adding 25 to his tally in 74 appearances, playing a part in their 1972/73 and 1974/75 title-winning sides.

Altafini’s Serie A career saw him score 216 goals in 459 appearances, averaging 0.47 goals per game.

Despite being born in Brazil, Altafini played a part in their 1958 World Cup win, as well as making six appearances for Italy between 1961 and 1962, scoring five times.

Ciro Immobile is the current active top scorer in Serie A, with the Euro 2020 winner sitting 13th on the all-time list with 182 goals in 291 matches, an impressive average of 0.63 goals per game.

The Lazio forward is unlikely to reach the top spot, unless he plays deep into his thirties, but, could definitely push for third ahead of Nordahl, as the Italian is 32 years old. Immobile scored 27 goals in 31 Serie A matches last campaign, meaning that another season of a similar standard would make this a distinct possibility.