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Cristiano Ronaldo is without any doubt one of the best players that the world of football has ever seen. You would think that as he gets close to retirement, his reflexes and overall quality would start to fade away, but instead, they have only become better.
Ronaldo is now in the new once again as he became the highest international scorer in men’s football after he scored his 110th and 111th goals for Portugal against the Republic of Ireland during their World Cup qualifying game where Ronaldo’s team one 2-1.
The 36 year old score two headers in the later part of the game after his penalty was stopped by the Irish keeper Gavin Bazunu. The record was once held by Ali Daei who score 109 goals for Iran between 1993 and 2006.
However, the record was later equaled by Ronaldo during the Euro 2020 against France. That was not the only record that Ronaldo equaled; he now has 180 appearances for Portugal, which is most by any European player. Ronaldo and Daei are the only two male players who have scored more than 90 goals in international games.
Ronaldo fans are now using this achievement for their case as they believe that the Portuguese is the greatest player in football. Remember that achieving these records is nothing new for Ronaldo as he is also the top-scored for club football and champions league, which he has also won five times.
After looking at his performances, we can see that almost half of Ronaldo’s goals for club and country have come in the final 30 minutes of the game. It goes to show that he has risen for his team when they needed him the most.
Around 90 of his goals have been from inside the box, while 20 have been from outside. The star has score 14 penalties and 9 free-kicks during his long career. 33 of his goals have come in the final 15 minutes of the game.
Unfortunately, there is no official database for the top international goal scorers in football, so it is difficult to rank everyone. However, Ronaldo is at the top, followed by Daei as no one has scored more goals.
Daei played for Bayern Munich, and when he broke the record, it was held by Puskas, who had scored 85 international goals. People can argue that Daei’s goals came against easier opponents, but that is not a good argument because Ronaldo has also scored a good chunk of his goals against weaker sides such as Luxembourg and Andorra. People are always comparing Ronaldo with Messi, but the truth is that both of them are very different players.
As football fans, we should not argue about who is better; instead, we should be thankful that we live in a time where we are fortunate enough to see both these players in their prime. Ronaldo recently moved back to Manchester United, and we have to see how well he will perform there.
