Five highest scoring defenders of all time

Bengaluru, July 8: Real Madrid skipper scored the all-important solitary goal for his club on Sunday as the Los Blancos managed to beat Athletic Bilbao 1-0 to take a 4-point lead over their rivals Barcelona in the race for La Liga.

It marked the 122nd career goal for the World Cup and Euro Cup winner with Spain, a tally that would put even some of the best midfielders of all time to shame. Ramos now ranks sixth in the celebrated list of highest scoring defenders of all time and in this article, we will take a look at the five highest-scoring defenders of all time.

5. Graham Alexander - 130 goals

Despite the fact that the Scotsman never played for a big club, he still has a career to look back with utmost pride. The former Burnley, Scunthorpe United, Luton Town and Preston North End full-back has a total of 130 career goals to his name. Although he was the automatic choice for penalty-taking duties when on the pitch and scored a considerable amount of goals from the spot. he also scored a reasonable amount of goals from open play. Surprisingly, despite his goal-scoring exploits at club level, he could never get off the mark for Scotland despite making 40 appearances for his country.

4. Laurent Blanc - 153 goals

One of the greatest defenders France have ever produced, Laurent Blanc takes the fourth place in this extraordinary list. The World Cup winner with France scored a total of 153 goals in his career and a good number of those was when he used to play in midfield in early days. The French footballing icon also scored 16 goals for the French national team, with the most famous one being the Golden Goal winner against Paraguay in France's last-16 tie at the 1998 World Cup.

3. Fernando Hierro - 163 goals

Another Real Madrid great, Hierro had an incredible goal-scoring record for both Real Madrid and Spain. He used to captain both Real Madrid and the Spanish national team just like Ramos and always deliver when it matters. Ramos looks on his way to emulate the success of his predecessor who scored an incredible 163 goals for club and country combined. Hierro used to an incredible free-kick taker as well as a reliable penalty-taker while he also scored a good number of goals from headers.

2. Daniel Passarella - 175 goals

While there is a general consensus that Diego Maradona led Argentina to glory completely on his own, it is anything but the truth. South American football's greatest defender Daniel Passarella also played a key part in Argentina's World Cup glory both in 1978 and 1986 and even captained his national team on the first occasion. He was a top-class defender and is regarded among the greatest to have ever graced the game but he was also a force on the attack having scored a total of 175 goals during his senior career.

1. Ronald Koeman - 253 goals

Now the manager of the Netherlands Football Team, Ronald Koeman's goalscoring exploits as a defender is highly unlikely to be achieved by any other defender. The former Ajax, PSV and Barcelona star scored a total of 253 goals, a tally that is better than many of the greatest midfielders of all time. He once scored 26 goals in a season for PSV and 19 goals once for Barcelona and was an expert at taking free-kicks and penalties.