5 English players with the most goals in Champions League history

#3 Paul Scholes (24 goals in 124 appearances)

Paul Scholes (#18) wheels away after scoring a stunner against Barcelona

Another legendary English midfielder, Manchester United's Paul Scholes often reserved his best displays on Champions League nights. Unlike Gerrard and Lampard, Scholes wasn't known for his scoring, and was relatively underutilised by the English national team as well (66 national caps).

A one-club man, the midfielder scored 152 goals and assisted 74 times in 713 appearances for the Red Devils. He was part of the Manchester United squad that beat Bayern Munich in dramatic fashion to win the Champions League in 1999.

Scholes was also the engine of the team that reached three finals in four years, beating Chelsea (2008) and losing to Barcelona twice (2009, 2011).

Scholes scored 24 goals in 17 Champions League editions. His long-range stunner to knock Lionel Messi's Barcelona out of the semi-finals in 2008 is one of the most famous goals in the tournament's recent history.

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#2 Raheem Sterling (24 goals in 68 appearances)

Raheem Sterling races past a Sporting Lisbon defender

The only player on our list who has not won the tournament so far, Raheem Sterling still has a chance to lift the trophy. Being the only active player on this list as well, it is only a matter of time before he adds to his tally of 24 UCL goals.

The 27-year-old Manchester City winger recently netted in the Citizens' 5-0 demolition of Sporting Lisbon in the first leg of their Round of 16 tie. Sterling now has three goals and two assists in this year's edition. He is looking to improve on his current best tally of six goals and five assists that came in 2019-20.

After a lacklustre 2020-21 campaign, which included a close defeat to Chelsea in the Champions League final, Sterling has looked much better this season. He is also coming off an excellent Euro 2020 campaign last year, and has 18 goals in 72 games for England.

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#1 Wayne Rooney (30 goals in 85 appearances)

Wayne Rooney at Old Trafford ahead of a game

Manchester United and England's record scorer, Wayne Rooney topping this list does not come as a surprise. With 253 goals for the Red Devils and 53 strikes for the Three Lions, Rooney is one of the greatest strikes of all time.

He played in 11 different Champions League editions, scoring 30 goals and providing 21 assists. The Englishman was part of Manchester United's fearsome attack, along with Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, who won the tournament in 2008.

Despite operating as a striker, Rooney was often shuffled around to accommodate the likes of Carlos Tevez, Ronaldo, Dimitar Berbatov, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Javier Hernandez.

As a result, he never scored more than five goals in a single Champions League season. The 2013-14 season was his most prolific UCL year in terms of goal contributions as Rooney scored twice and assisted eight times in nine games.