Where else to start than the AFC Champions League’s all-time top scorer, Dejan Damjanovic? The Montenegrin has scored for four different clubs in the continental competition – FC Seoul, Beijing FC, Suwon Samsung Bluewings and Kitchee SC, with whom he broke Lee Dong-gook’s all-time scoring record back in 2021 and bagged the last of his 42 goals – against Vissel Kobe – a year later.

But it is in Korea Republic where Damjanovic found a home away from home, and he will forever be a legend at FC Seoul, whom he netted twice for in the 2013 final only for an away goals defeat against Guangzhou FC to see him miss out on the title. Five years later, his nine goals – a single-campaign high for the striker – fired Suwon to the semi-finals as he remained one of the continent’s most feared marksmen well into the twilight of his career.

One of the greatest Syrian players of the 21st century, Omar Khrbin plied his trade in various leagues across the continent, from Syria to Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, but it was at Al Hilal that he recorded his best achievements. He joined the Riyadh side from UAE’s Al Dhafra in 2017, helping them win the Saudi Pro League title three times.

In his first full season in the Saudi capital, Khrbin was the main driving force behind their return to the AFC Champions League final, finishing as the competition’s top scorer with 10 goals including five across the two legs of the semi-finals against Persepolis. He went on to become the first Syrian player to win the AFC Player of the Year award that year.

Korean striker Lee Dong-gook held the all-time scoring record for many a year before Damjanovic knocked him off his perch in 2021. However, unlike his Montenegrin rival, the Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors icon did manage to lift the title when, as a 37-year-old in 2016, he was part of the Jeonju side’s victory over Al Ain in the final on the back of a campaign that saw him bag five goals.

That victory went some way towards making up for the heartache of 2011, when Lee scored a tournament-leading 11 goals to pick up the top scorer accolade, only to miss out on the title following a penalty shootout defeat in the final to Al Sadd in Jeonju. Scoring his first AFC Champions League goal in 2010 and his last in 2019, no player has found the back of the net more times for a single club in the competition than Lee.

Few players were able to translate their AFC Champions League form into success at the very top of European football. At the age of 22, Mehdi Taremi was playing for his hometown club Iranjavan, but following a move to Iranian powerhouse Persepolis in 2014, he broke through to the forefront of Asian football with a memorable campaign in the 2017 AFC Champions League.

Taremi scored seven goals in 2017, leading his side to the semi-finals which he missed through suspension. After a short spell at Qatar’s Al Gharafa, he moved to Portugal, eventually becoming the first Asian player to win the top scorer award in a European league twice, doing so in 2019-20 and 2022-23. Taremi also scored 10 goals in the UEFA Champions League, while his volley against Chelsea in the 2020-21 quarter-finals was voted the competition’s goal of the year.

Another player that can point to longevity, Shinzo Koroki netted his first AFC Champions League goal for Kashima Antlers back in 2008 and then scored in four consecutive campaigns for the Ibaraki-based club. It is at Urawa Red Diamonds, however, where the striker has enjoyed triumphant campaigns as he netted some vital goals in remarkable come-from-behind wins in the knockout rounds to help the Saitama side win their second title in 2017.

But 2019 may be remembered as his finest individual campaign, scoring eight times – including five in the knockout rounds – only for Urawa to finish as runners-up to Al Hilal. However, there was a glorious return from a loan spell at Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo for the final of the 2022 edition, where Koroki scored in the first leg away to Al Hilal as Urawa claimed yet another title. In the AFC Champions League era, only five players boast more goals than Koroki’s 27.

One of the top 10 goal scorers in the AFC Champions League history, Baghdad Bounedjah has been at Al Sadd for nine years, during which he scored 26 goals in the continental competition. Only Lee Dong-gook scored more goals representing only one club. The Algerian striker also won the top scorer award in the Qatar Stars League on two occasions and helped his team win the league title four times during his stay in Doha.

Bounedjah’s greatest AFC Champions League performance was in the 2018 campaign when his 13 goals helped Al Sadd reach the semi-finals, while he won the top scorer award, matching the record for most goals in a single AFC Champions League season. Bounedjah also holds the distinction of winning the FIFA Club World Cup top scorer award in 2019.

When it comes to a single edition, Muriqui’s performance in 2013 is hard to beat. A key component of Guangzhou FC’s rise to prominence in the early 2010s, the Brazilian striker took the competition by storm in the Chinese Super League team’s first title-winning campaign, scoring a then record-breaking 13 goals along the way – a tally that has been matched but never overtaken to this day.

Under Marcello Lippi, Muriqui scored in five successive group stage games and his scintillating form continued in the knockout rounds, where he netted seven times, including four in the semi-finals. Not only did he finish as a continental champion, he also picked up the top scorer and MVP accolades. Of his 20 AFC Champions League goals – for both Guangzhou and Al Sadd – two-thirds came in one glorious campaign.

In just three seasons and a half, Bafetimbi Gomis established himself as a club icon at Al Hilal. The Frenchman arrived from Galatasaray in 2018 and left back to the Turkish club in January 2022, having become Al Hilal’s all-time top scorer in the Saudi Pro League and the fifth overall scorer in the competition’s history with 81 goals.

Gomis’ impact was equally as important in the AFC Champions League. His goal scoring exploits in 2019 helped Al Hilal finally bring home the title for the first time since 2000. In that campaign, he bagged 10 goals, including three in the semi-finals and the second goal in the 2-0 final second leg victory over Urawa Red Diamonds. Gomis was also named the tournament MVP that year.

A blistering start in 2016 set FC Seoul’s Adriano on his way to matching Muriqui’s 13-goal record. The Brazilian striker began with a bang, scoring four goals inside an hour against Buriram United before following it up with a 20-minute hat-trick versus Sanfrecce Hiroshima and a double in an away win over Shandong Taishan to make it a whopping nine goals in just three games.

Forming a deadly partnership alongside Damjanovic, Adriano’s strike rate slowed, but there was a crucial goal in the last-16 win against Urawa and further goals in the quarter- and semi-finals, where Seoul were beaten by Jeonbuk, who he would later score six AFC Champions League goals for. Like Muriqui, though, it is one historic campaign that he will be most remembered for.

Nicknamed ‘The Engineer’ by Kenyan football fans, Michael Olunga has been a fixture in Asian football ever since joining Chinese side Guizhou FC in 2017. He then moved across to Japan’s Kashiwa Reysol where he became the first African player to win both the top scorer and the MVP in the J1 League in 2020.

Olunga was snapped up by Qatari powerhouse Al Duhail in 2021, and he delivered instantly, winning the Qatar Stars League top scorer award in both his first two seasons. The Kenya captain replicated that form in the AFC Champions League that year. Despite Al Duhail being eliminated in the group stage, Olunga finished as the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals, scoring in every match. He then scored six goals in the 2022 edition as Al Duhail reached the semi-finals.