In total, 27 handballers to date have scored 1000 or more goals for their national teams at senior level.
A vast majority of the players who scored at least 1000 goals, are from the modern era of the sport. This is partly because fewer games were played at international level than today.Péter Kovács held the record for most goals scored, until Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson beat his record in 2018. France is the country with the most entries on this list, with four players having scored 1000 or more goals. Only two players on this list have played for two different federations. Frank-Michael Wahl scored 1338 goals for East Germany and 74 goals for the German national team, also Talant Duyshebaev, who scored for USSR, Unified Team and Russia and 569 goals for Spain.[1] Only goals scored at the highest international level are included, meaning goals for national junior and youth teams aren't. Only one player scoring more than 1000 goals managed to reach a goals per game ratio 7.0 and above, while the lowest ratio is 3.09. Out of 27 players to score 1000 or more goals in history, only 10 of them have won the World Championship at least once. Ahmed El-Ahmar is the only non-European player to appear on this list.
Players in bold are still active.
| Rank | Player | Goals | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Guðjón Valur Sigurðsson[2] | 1879 | |
| 2 |  Péter Kovács[3] | 1797 | |
| 3 | Kiril Lazarov[4] | 1728 | |
| 4 | Ólafur Stefánsson[5] | 1562 | |
| 5 | Lars Christiansen[6] | 1503 | |
| 6 |  Jérôme Fernandez[7] | 1463 | |
| 7 | Carlos Resende[8] | 1444 | |
| 8 |  Ahmed El-Ahmar[9] | 1425 | |
| 9 | Vasile Stîngă[10] | 1414 | |
| 10 | Frank-Michael Wahl[11] | 1412 | |
| 11 | Mikkel Hansen[12] | 1387 | |
| 12 |  Settimio Massotti[13] | 1371 | |
| 13 |   Talant Duyshebaev | - | |
| 14 | Nikola Karabatić[14] | 1293 | |
| 15 |  Magnus Wislander[15] | 1185 | |
| 16 |  Jerzy Klempel[16] | 1170 | |
| 17 | Stefan Lövgren[17] | 1138 | |
| 18 | Kristján Arason[18] | 1123 | |
| 19 | Eduard Koksharov[19] | 1110 | |
| 20 |  Andy Schmid[20] | 1094 | |
| 21 | Marc Baumgartner[21] | 1093 | |
| 22 |  Andreas Dittert[22] | 1089 | |
| 23 | Robert Licu[23] | 1054 | |
| 24 | Per Carlén[24] | 1032 | |
| 25 | Michaël Guigou[25] | 1021 | |
| 26 | Frédéric Volle[26] | 1016 | |
| 27 | Erik Veje Rasmussen[27] | 1015 | |