Discover the Record: Who Scored the Most Goals in a Soccer Game with 149 Goals?
As a longtime researcher and editor in the world of sports statistics, I’ve come across some truly mind-bending records. But few questions stop a casual conversation in its tracks quite like this one: who scored the most goals in a soccer game? And I’m not talking about a 5-0 thriller. I mean the absolute, no-holds-barred, statistical outlier. The answer, which I had to verify through multiple historical archives, is a staggering 149 goals in a single match. Let that number sink in for a moment. In the modern era, we celebrate a striker who nets a hat-trick. This record exists in a different universe entirely.
The game in question wasn’t a FIFA World Cup final or a Champions League epic. It was a domestic league match in Madagascar between AS Adema and SO l’Emyrne back in 2002. Now, here’s the twist that makes this record so fascinating, and frankly, a bit controversial in purist circles. Those 149 goals were not scored in the conventional sense of one team attacking another’s goal with relentless skill. They were own goals. A deliberate, staggering protest by SO l’Emyrne against a refereeing decision in a previous game led them to score against their own net repeatedly from kick-off. The final scoreline read AS Adema 149–0 SO l’Emyrne. So, technically, the “team” that scored the most goals is AS Adema, but the act of scoring was performed by their opponents. It’s a record born not of athletic prowess, but of protest, and it completely upends how we think about the very essence of a “goal” in the record books. I have mixed feelings about it. As a statistician, the number is undeniable and officially recognized by Guinness World Records. As a fan of the sport’s competitive spirit, it feels like a hollow, albeit spectacular, anomaly.
This leads me to a more practical, modern-day consideration of team performance and scoring efficiency, which is where that snippet from your knowledge base offers a interesting parallel. You see, while we might chase these astronomical, freakish numbers, the real story of soccer is often written in far more modest tallies. Consider the line: “With the Canadian import at the helm, the foreign guest team registered a 4-2 slate for a 7-3 overall – good for a share of second place.” Now, we don’t have the full context, but we can unpack this. A “4-2 slate” likely refers to a 4-2 win-loss record in a recent series or segment of games. An overall record of 7-3 is solid, winning 70% of their matches. That’s the kind of consistent, winning output that defines successful seasons, not one-off explosions. The foreign guest team, presumably built around a key Canadian talent, isn’t scoring 149 goals, but they are scoring enough to win and to contend for a high place in the standings, sharing second with teams like Northport and Converge. This is the reality of professional soccer. Sustainability matters. A reliable import player leading a team to a 7-3 record is, in my professional opinion, often more impressive and certainly more replicable than a once-in-a-lifetime statistical fluke.
I often argue with colleagues about what constitutes a “greater” achievement. Is it the unimaginable peak or the sustained excellence? The 149-0 game is the ultimate peak, a vertical line on a graph. The 7-3 record, built on a series of 4-2 and 3-1 results, is a steadily rising curve. For clubs, investors, and fans, the curve is what builds legacies and fills trophy cabinets. The vertical line is a cautionary tale or a bizarre trivia answer. When I look at team construction, I’m drawn to the architecture of that “4-2 slate.” It suggests resilience, an ability to bounce back from losses, and a system where the “Canadian import at the helm” can reliably produce results. That’s the engine of the sport.
So, who scored the most goals in a soccer game? Officially, it was AS Adema, benefitting from 149 own goals. But the spirit of that record is disconnected from the sport we watch every week. The true art of scoring goals is showcased in the grind of a long season, in putting together strings of positive results like a 4-2 run to climb the table. The 149-goal game is a monument to protest; a 7-3 record is a testament to planning, execution, and skill. Both are facts in the ledger, but only one teaches us how the game is truly won over time. In my view, the most meaningful goals aren’t the ones that make a surreal headline once every century, but the ones that, game after game, add up to a share of second place and a shot at something even greater.