Ligue 1/Division 1 All-Time Top Scorers

Delio Onnis is Ligue 1’s all-time top scorer with a staggering 299 goals in 449 games for AS Monaco, Reims, Tours and Toulon between 1972 and 1986, averaging 0.67 goals per game.

Despite of this, Onnis never made an international appearance for the country of his birth, Italy, or his native Argentina, as the national manager preferred players from the Argentinian domestic leagues such as Mario Kempes.

Onnis started his Ligue 1 career at Reims, scoring 39 in 65 matches, before transferring to AS Monaco, firing in 187 in 232 matches, with 30 of these coming in 32 Division 2 matches during the 1976/77 season as they earned promotion back to Division One following relegation. Monaco would then win Division One the following year as Onnis scored 29 in 35.

The only other trophy that Onnis won in France came in 1979/80 in the shape of the Coupe de France, of which he also achieved this in his last season at Monaco before transferring to Tours, where he would go on to fire in 64 goals in 110, leaving them when they were relegated in 1982/83.

Onnis would spend the final three years of his career with Toulon in Division One, adding a further 39 goals to his tally in 74 games, ending a remarkable career.

Bernard Lacombe was also a superb striker in and around the same period of time as Onnis, scoring 255 goals in 497 matches for Lyon, Saint-Etienne and Bordeaux between 1969 and 1987, averaging 0.51 goals per game.

The 69-year-old had a superb playing career, where he managed to rack up a Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions with Olympique Lyon in 1973, before going on to win Division One three times in the early to mid-1980s with Bordeaux, as well as also managing two Coupe de France’s and a Trophee des Champions.

Lacombe famously managed to help France to win Euro 1984, and even became a manager in 1996 after his playing days had finished, taking over at hometown club Lyon in 1996 until 2000, winning the 1997 Intertoto Cup, before helping in an advisory role, helping the club to retain the likes of Juninho, Edmilson, Cris and Fred.

Herve Revelli is third on the list having managed 216 goals in 389 games for both Saint-Etienne and Nice over a 13-year period.

The 76-year-old Frenchman goes down as an all-time great in the league’s history, having been part of the great Saint-Etienne side of the 1960s and 1970s that went on to win seven titles between 1966 and 1976, as well as earning four Coupe de France’s.

During his first spell at Les Verts, Revelli managed to score 126 goals in 189 matches between 1964 and 1971, before leaving to Nice, scoring 41 in 71 games. When Revelli returned to Saint-Etienne after two years in the south coast of France, he found the back of the net 49 times in 129 matches.

Up until PSG’s recent dominance, Revelli had more league titles than anyone else in French history to his name with seven, however, following last season’s triumph, Marco Verratti now holds the record with eight.

Between 1933 and 1956, Roger Courtois was the most potent Division 1 (Ligue 1) striker of his era, scoring 210 goals in 288 matches, with an average of 0.73 goals per game whilst playing for both Sochaux and now-defunct club, AS Troyes-Savinienne.

The Swiss striker scored 10 in 12 matches for Urania Geneve Sport between 1932 and 1933 before making the move to France where he was an instant hit due to his outrageous goal record in his first spell at Sochaux, firing in 151 goals in 147 games for Sochaux, winning Division 1 twice with the club in 1935 and 1938, as well as a Coupe de France in 1937.

Courtois, who actually made 22 caps for France had a four-year spell with Lausanne Sport in Switzerland from 1941 to 1945, before making a return to Sochaux between 1945 and 1952 and was still able to find the back of the net on a frequent basis, managing 78 goals in 183 matches, ending his playing days via a brief 15 game stint with AS Troyes-Savinienne, which also saw him manage the club for 11 years.

Polish forward Thadee Cisowski is the fifth player to make this list, having had tremendous goalscoring success with the likes of Metz, Racing Club Paris and Valenciennes between 1947 and 1961.

Despite being born in Poland, he did actually make 13 appearances for France and holds a record for the national side, having scored five goals in a World Cup qualifying match against Belgium in 1956, equalling a record initially set by Eugene Maes in 1913.

Overall in his career, Cisowski managed a staggering 272 goals in 369 games in France’s top-flight and second-tier, as he also represented Nantes between 1961 and 1962, scoring eight goals in 19 matches.

Cisowski’s Division 1 record stands at 206 goals in 286 matches, seeing him have an average of 0.72 goals per game.

Kylian Mbappe is the highest active top scorer in Ligue 1 with 134 goals to his name in 182 matches for AS Monaco and PSG, following a superb 2021/22 campaign that saw the 2018 World Cup winner score 28 goals and create 19 assists in 35 matches as the Parisians went on to win the Ligue 1 title.

Realistically, Mbappe has the potential to push for the all-time record at the age of 23 years old, but, one thing that could stop him is the interest of Real Madrid, who he looked like a certainty to join this summer.

Wissam Ben Yedder is just eight goals behind Mbappe, having managed 126 goals in 256 matches for the likes of Toulouse and AS Monaco, and would undoubtedly be within a closer striking range of the likes of Cisowski if he hadn’t have had a spell at Sevilla between 2016 and 2019.

At the age of 31, there is still a chance of Ben Yedder getting in the current top five, however, he will need to have consistency all the way into his late thirties to stand a chance. Last season, the Monaco forward bagged 25 goals in 37 matches.