Great goalscoring defenders

Defending is an art; goalscoring is an art – and sometimes, a player comes along who excels at both.

From free-kick-taking full-backs to screamer-scoring centre-halves, these stars all found the net more frequently than you'd expect the average defender to do.

Let's get straight down to business, shall we? Click any of the arrows on the right to commence the countdown...

A penalty specialist, 40-cap Scotland right-back Graham Alexander scored 131 career goals – all at club level.

He spent most of his career in the second tier of English football – finding the net 66 times across two spells at Preston North End – but did strike seven times in the Premier League for Burnley during the 2009/10 campaign.

Capped four times by Brazil, towering centre-back Naldo spent the bulk of his career in the Bundesliga – where he starred for Werder Bremen, Wolfsburg and Schalke.

And he put his six-foot-four frame to good use, scoring 73 career goals – although he didn’t always find the net with his head: he also possessed a ferociously powerful shot from free-kicks.

Captain and go-to penalty taker at Rangers for a number of years, right-back James Tavernier has notched well over 100 goals over the course of his career.

And we know what you’re going to say – but around half of those have not been penalties. Impressive numbers for a defender, however you look at it.

A Premier League, FA Cup, League Cup, Champions League and Europa League winner with Chelsea, Branislav Ivanovic knew what glory felt like on a team level.

The former Serbia centre-half also tasted a fair amount of it as an individual, scoring 75 times for club and country – thanks largely to his great aerial prowess.

Former Argentina international Enzo Trossero scored the best part of 100 goals during his career, with most of them coming for Independiente.

Included in his country’s 1982 World Cup squad, Trossero also registered a decent amount while on loan in France at Nantes – who he helped to the 1979/80 Ligue 1 title.

John Arne Riise’s left foot wasn’t so much a wand as a (to quote the great Alan Partridge) traction engine, as he demonstrated more than once for Liverpool.

The flying Norwegian full-back’s most famous goal came against Manchester United in 2001, when he met Didi Hamman’s free-kick lay-off with a veritable thunderbolt during to a 3-1 win at Anfield.

Arsenal great Frank McLintock did the 1970/71 double with the Gunners, having helped them to Inter-Cities Fairs Cup the previous season – and the Scottish centre-back made his fair share of attacking contributions for the North London giants, netting 32 times in all.

He’d previously scored 28 goals for his first club, Leicester, and he notched once in nine Scotland caps.

Most famous for being on the receiving end of a ‘header’ by Zinedine Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final, Marco Materazzi did use his head to great effect on numerous occasions throughout his career.

In fact, he notched Italy’s equaliser as they came from behind to win that very game – while he reached double figures for goals in two club seasons, for Perugia in 2000/01 (12) and Inter in 2006/07 (10).

A superb free-kick technician who scored 10 (more than a third) of his Premier League goals from such situations, Ian Harte is an all-time great of the Irish game.

In 64 international outings, the Leeds icon got himself on the scoresheet 12 times – including a penalty as the Republic of Ireland beat Iran in a play-off to qualify for the 2002 World Cup.

One of Peru’s very best players of all time, Hector Chumpitaz represented his nation at the 1970 and 1978 World Cups.

The diminutive centre-back scored en route to the quarter-finals of the first of those tournaments and bagged the majority of his club goals for Lima-based giants Universitario – who he helped to five Peruvian titles.

Among the greatest Belgian defenders of all time, Daniel Van Buyten towered above most other players on the pitch at six-foot-six.

And it didn’t just help him get the ball away from danger: he was regularly on target for club and country, scoring 32 goals for Bayern Munich – where he did the treble in 2012/13 – and 10 for Belgium.

An Eredivisie and UEFA Cup winner with Feyenoord who earned 11 caps for the Netherlands, Dick Schneider was no stranger to scoring.

He got the majority of his goals for the Rotterdam giants, where he spent eight years between his first two of three spells at hometown club Go Ahead Eagles.

Among the best South American defenders of all time, Rafael Albrecht chalked up 95 top-flight goals across spells in his native Argentina and Mexico – as well as three for the national team, who he represented at the 1962 and 1966 World Cups.

Making most of his career appearances for famous Buenos Aires outfit San Lorenzo, Albrecht was a clinical penalty taker.

One of Romania’s best players of all time, Gheorghe Popescu was a regular scorer at club and international level.

Capped 115 times by his country, featuring at three World Cups and two Euros, Popescu notched the bulk of his goals for PSV, who he helped to back-to-back Eredivisie titles in the early 90s.

Starring most notably for Eintracht Frankfurt and Werder Bremen at club level, Austrian sweeper Bruno Pezzey scored goals wherever he went – including one for his country against Northern Ireland at the 1982 World Cup.

A title winner with Wacker Innsbruck and Swarovski Tirol in his homeland, Pezzey helped Eintracht to victory in the 1979/80 UEFA Cup.

Holder of the record for the most Premier League goals by a centre-back (41), John Terry’s world-class aerial ability made him a constant threat from set-pieces.

The legendary ex-Chelsea skipper bagged 68 club goals in total (67 for the Blues, and one for Aston Villa at the very end of his career) and registered six times for England.

A reliable penalty taker who also had a powerful long-range shot, Frank Leboeuf was frequently on the scoresheet throughout his successful career.

An FA Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup winner with Chelsea, and a world and European champion with France, the ever-cool centre-half scored most of his goals for Strasbourg.

Captain of West Germany’s 1980 European Championship-winning side, left-back Bernard Dietz was a frequent goalscorer for MSV Duisburg, the club where he spent the majority of his career.

Incredibly for a defender, Dietz – who was one of the Bundesliga’s most consistent performers of the 70s – found the net four times in a 6-3 thrashing of Bayern Munich in 1977.

Skipper as Italy were crowned 1968 European champions and a one-club man at Inter, Giacinto Facchetti was a truly legendary left-back.

Scoring the best part of 100 career goals, he held the record for the most by a defender in a single Serie A campaign for 45 years (10) – until Marco Materazzi broke it in 2000/01.

Arguably Hamburg’s greatest ever player, Manfred Kaltz is an absolute legend in the history of the multiple Bundesliga champions, chalking up a whopping 581 appearances in the West German top flight and starring in their 1982/83 European Cup triumph.

The right-back registered almost 100 career goals (mostly from the penalty spot) – including eight for his country, with whom he won Euro 1980.

World Cup-winning hero for West Germany in 1990, clinching victory with a late penalty in the final against Argentina, the late Andreas Brehme is rightly remembered as one of the finest full-backs ever to play the game.

A significant offensive presence down the left, the genuinely two-footed Brehme scored 88 goals in all for club and country – including many from another of his weapons of choice: free-kicks.

A trusty, no-nonsense penalty taker and all-round dead-ball specialist, Stuart Pearce notched 99 club goals plus five for England.

The Three Lions’ first-choice left-back for most of the 90s, ‘Psycho’ opened the scoring for Nottingham Forest in the 1991 FA Cup final with a superb free-kick – only to suffer an agonising stoppage-time defeat to Tottenham.

As you’ve probably gleaned by now, Germany has produced quite a lot of great goalscoring defenders – and Paul Breitner was absolutely no exception.

An expert from the penalty spot, the Euro 1972- and 1974 World Cup-winning left-back struck 140 times overall, including 105 over the course of two spells at Bayern Munich – who he helped to 1973/74 European Cup success.

Sergio Ramos won every major honour multiple times during a glittering 16-year stay at Real Madrid – and he made the net burst plenty of times along the way.

Always an aerial threat with his supremely accurate heading, the king of the dark arts also dispatched a fair few Panenka penalties.

Former captain of both Real Madrid and Spain, Fernando Hierro knew where the net was, finding it more than 150 times throughout his long career.

Plenty of his goals were penalties – but plenty were not, such was his wonderful goalscoring prowess for a player who was primarily a central defender.

A fine defender, the late Sinisa Mihajlovic’s career was one big highlights reel – thanks to his incredible free-kick prowess.

No distance was too far for the Lazio legend – who won the 1999/2000 Serie title – to try, and he found the net 109 times in all for club and country (Yugoslavia).

As a reserve player at Gillingham, Steve Bruce once top-scored with 18 goals in a season; it was a sign of things to come.

A powerful header of the ball who was also adept from the spot, the legendary Manchester United centre-back netted 114 times in total – including an incredible 19 for the Red Devils during the 1990/91 season.

The greatest sweeper in the history of the game, Franz Beckenbauer had plenty of licence to get forward – but he was, first and foremost, a defender.

Which makes his career tally of more than 100 goals for club and country – including four at the 1966 World Cup, where only West Germany teammate Helmut Haller and Eusebio out-scored him – mightily impressive.

More technically proficient than many of his centre-half contemporaries, Laurent Blanc retired with more than 150 goals to his name.

Remarkably, he scored 15 or more in a season on three occasions – all at Montpellier early in his career – while he notched one of the most crucial goals in the history of the French national team: the first ever World Cup golden goal, sealing victory against Paraguay in the last 16 en route to glory in 1998.

Another of the finest free-kick takers of all time, Roberto Carlos often gravitated towards the spectacular when scoring.

Case in point: that veritable screamer against France in 1997 – a goal we’ll never tire of watching or mentioning, and one of well over 100 the Brazil and Real Madrid icon registered throughout his glittering career.

Captain as Argentina lifted their first World Cup in 1978 on home soil, Daniel Passarella was one of the greatest and most offensively minded defenders ever to grace the pitch.

A proficient penalty taker, Passarella scored the best part of 200 goals at club and international level, falling one shy of 100 in the Argentine top flight and registering at two World Cups.

Ronald Koeman is the greatest goalscoring defender of all time and it’s not even close: the iconic Dutch centre-back struck an astonishing 252 times in all – a tally most strikers would be proud of.

Never afraid to advance up the pitch, Koeman’s most potent weapon was his ferocious shot from free-kicks – which he demonstrated to stunning effect with the only goal of the game in Barcelona’s maiden European Cup triumph of 1992.