Harry Kane on verge of equalling Messi Champions League record ahead of CR7 | OneFootball

Bayern Munich striker Harry Kane only needs two goals in the Champions League to equal an incredible Lionel Messi record.

The Tottenham Hotspur legend faces Atalanta on Wednesday evening, with Bayern 6-1 ahead on aggregate after an emphatic first-leg win away from home.

Bayern have essentially qualified for the quarter-final of this season’s competition, but Vincent Kompany is not expected to leave out his most important players.

Kompany will benefit from Michael Olise and Joshua Kimmich being (conveniently) suspended, while Luis Diaz and Nicolas Jackson are serving domestic suspensions after their red cards against Bayer Leverkusen last weekend.

This means Diaz and Jackson will surely start against Atalanta, which does cast some doubt over Kane’s involvement.

However, the England captain has recently been out injured, and Kompany will likely view Wednesday’s clash as a perfect opportunity for Kane to regain match sharpness.

He might not start, but 30 minutes is comfortably enough time for Kane to bag a couple of goals against a beleaguered Atalanta.

If Kane does exactly that, he will reach 50 Champions League goals in only 66 games – the same number it took Lionel Messi, and 25 fewer than Cristiano Ronaldo.

You will not be shocked when you see who hit half a century the quickest. Here are the current top 10 players who reached 50 Champions League goals in the fewest number of matches, with Kane tipped to join Messi in third.

10. Thomas Muller – 130 games

A two-time Champions League winner with Bayern Munich, Muller made a huge impact on the European stage.

While the German forward never scored double figures in a single UCL campaign, he constantly produced a handful of goals in most of his seasons with Bayern.

9. Thierry Henry – 103 games

Henry retired with exactly 50 Champions League goals to his name and it took him 103 games to reach the landmark.

He enjoyed his most prolific years in Europe playing for Arsenal, but didn’t get his hands on the trophy until he moved to Barcelona.

8. Raul – 97 games

Having won the Champions League on three separate occasions, Raul is one of the most decorated players in the competition’s history.

He enjoyed his most prolific campaign in the Champions League in 1999-00, where he scored 10 goals in 15 appearances, including a goal in the final against Valencia.

7. Cristiano Ronaldo – 91 games

While Ronaldo is the outright top scorer in the history of the Champions League with 140 goals, he wasn’t the quickest player to reach 5o goals.

Prior to transitioning into a goalscoring machine in his late twenties, Ronaldo was a dynamic winger who seemed more interested in doing stepovers than finding the back of the net.

In his first 75 Champions League matches, he *only* scored 32, averaging a goal every 194 minutes. Since that point, he scored 108 goals in his last 108 UCL games, scoring every 90.19 minutes on average.

His record of 140 goals in the competition could be broken in the future, by a certain Nordic Robot, but there’s no doubt that CR7 will always be known as ‘Mr Champions League’.

6. Karim Benzema – 88 games

Like Ronaldo, Benzema has also won the Champions League trophy a ridiculous five times.

However, his most iconic run in the competition was one of his last in 2021-22, where he scored 15 goals in 12 games to fire Real Madrid to the trophy.

In total, it took the Frenchman 88 games to reach the 50-goal landmark, a figure which has only been bettered by five players. For now.

5. Kylian Mbappe – 79 games

Mbappe scored his 50th Champions League goal in 2024 and it took him 79 matches to reach that milestone, becoming the second-youngest player in the process.

The Frenchman is one of only two players on this list to have never actually won the competition, but he has time on his side.

4. Robert Lewandowski – 77 games

When it comes to goalscoring records, you’ll usually find Lewandowski’s name somewhere near the top of the list.

The Polish forward has been consistently scoring goals in Europe since 2011-12 and is still going strong today at the ripe old age of 37.

He’s currently one of only three players to have scored more than 100 goals in the history of the competition.

3. Lionel Messi – 66 games

The Argentine wizard scored 10 or more goals in five separate UCL campaigns and left Europe in 2023, having scored 129 goals in 163 games.

Messi was particularly prolific during his early years as it only took him 66 games to reach the 50-goal milestone, a record which has only been beaten by two players, and could be equaled by Kane on Tuesday.

2. Ruud van Nistelrooy – 62 games

Up until recently, Van Nistelrooy held the record as the fastest player to ever reach 50 goals in the Champions League.

The Dutch forward only needed 62 games to reach the landmark figure and his record stood strong from 2007 to 2025.

Despite retiring in 2012 as one of the competition’s top scorers of all time, the former Man United and Real Madrid star never managed to get his hands on the trophy.

1. Erling Haaland – 49 games

Not only did Haaland break the record for the fewest games needed to reach 50 goals, but he’s absolutely obliterated the previous record.

The 25-year-old made history with his scoring record and he’s now projected to break Ronaldo’s all-time record by the time he retires.

As things stand, Haaland is averaging a goal every 80.82 minutes in the UCL, which is utterly absurd.