Chitalu’s and Dahari’s deaths are both very sad. Chitalu died at 45 on 27th April 1993 when a plane carrying the Zambian national team crashed in the ocean, 30 people total died. Dahari was diagnosed with motor neurone disease and died 3 years later of muscular dystrophy at age 37 on 11th July 1991.
Mokhtar is his given name
I do think international goals hold less weight these days, due to the amount of games played. Especially European nations playing the likes of San Marino, Luxembourg, Andorra etc more often.
205 caps is mad, that record will probably stay for a loong time. (if it is a record, im not sure but you’d think it is)
He was going toe to toe with a player from Kuwait I think, but seems the latter slowed down.
EDIT: his name is Bader Al-Mutawa and he has 196 caps but the last was in June 2022, probably won’t reach Ronaldo.
Ronaldo only scoring his 50th goal at the age of 29 is crazy to still end up the highest
C. Ronaldo has over 400 goals after turning 30. He has scored more goals after turning 30 than most of the best strikers during their whole career… (Ronaldo, Raul, Van nistelrooy etc…)
Raul to be precise has more than 440 goals
Ronaldo after 30: over 400+ goals, 2 Ballon D’ors, 2x FIFA best, Euro 2016, championships in Spain and Italy, three Champions League back to back
Messi after 30: 250+ goals, 3 Ballon D’ors, World Cup 2022 win, 1x FIFA best.
Most players start going downhill after 30 these mfs doubled up on their individual awards and achievements
But Messi and Ronaldo caseses seem different.
Ronaldo doubled down and become even better after 30, Messi kept
a highan extraordinary level but he was far from his best (even if he managed to lead ARgentina to the WC)Unless you purely compare stats, Ronaldo pre-30 is better than Ronaldo post-30. What he has going over his pre-30 days is winning. 3 b2b2b Champions Leagues and the Euro 2016 means his post-30s are greater than his pre-30s, but purely in terms of overall player performance, 06-14 were his peak. But with all that he has a GOAT level career just considering his post 30 career
Maybe improved is not the word, but my impression is that he become more decisive and clutch. Maybe this is coincidental with the departure of Guardiola and decrease of Barcelona’s dominance which left more room to Madrid and CR to claim the throne.
In any case, I think the point I was trying to make is understood and that Messi and Cristiano’s careers are not really parallels despite their huge longevity and consistency
Puskas 0.94 goals per game is insane not even Messi or Ronaldo are averaging that much internationally
Haaland is though.
Super Mokh!
I hope Lewandowski can be 3rd on this list by the end of his career
Imagine one country in AFC was an elite national team for many decades of the likes of France, Germany in the past, Spain etc… We would have seen a 200 goals scorer given how many levels below most Asian teams are. But now AFC is making huge progress with Japan, South Korea, Uzbekistan slowly, etc…
Huh Uzbekistan?
Whats happening there? Never heard of their NT or players beeing good.
Drawn 2-2 with Iran in last match. Also check their last fixtures, you will get it.
They just beat England in the rd of 16 knockout game of the U17 WC. Yesterday was the match I think
And Uzbekistan is basically set to qualify for the next WC with the increase in slots. The AFC getting only 4/5 slots in all the previous WCs basically kept Uzbekistan out of contention from final qualification. But this year they seem an even better team than any time before and with that U17 lot putting on the performance that they have yesterday, they only seem to be getting better with regards to their future chances too
I’d liken them to the Atletico Madrid teams we’ve seen over the past decade. Physical, defensively solid, potential to launch some solid counter attacks, decent finishing across their attacking ranks. But yes, Imo, its their ability to not give an inch as a collective to their opposition that is their biggest strength. They’ll latch onto the opposition when they have the ball and harass them into giving it up basically.
We (India) are clubbed with them, Australia and Syria in the Asian Cup group. Our U17 lads also faced this current U17 team earlier this year in the final round for the U17 WC qualification. They absolutely got our boys mentally done for 75-80 mins out of the 90 with their physical game and got a 1-0 win iirc. So a handful of us on the Indian football sub have followed their recent results and it’s not an over exaggeration to say that they’re right behind Iran, South Korea and Japan with regards to overall quality.
Lukaku ends his career at the top of this list
I’d bet Mbappé will have more than Lukaku then.
49 goals behind Ronaldo and he’s already 30, he needs to score more international goals than Bobby Charlton did in his entire career between now and retirement to do that and that’s only if Ronaldo doesn’t score another one
Bringing Bobby Charlton who wasn’t a striker into this is just silly.
It all depends if he can keep up his current form this year. If he plays for 5 more years roughly, it’s 10 goals a year which is a big ask but not out of the question.
Ronaldo started scoring more after turning 30, lord Lakaka can easily replicate that
Never
I know it’s not the most immediately eye-catching number on this list, but Lewandowski scoring over 80 goals for a country that hasn’t been consistently able to create chances since the early Eighties is absolutely insane.
Lukaku is 8th in the world???
You laugh, but if he maintains his current trajectory, he will be number one in about five years’ time.
Man’s got a goals per game ratio that Ali Daei himself would be proud of.
HUGE if
He won’t overtake Ronaldo, no chance
I mean, he’s just turned 30, and he needs 46 more goals to overtake him. Ronaldo probably can’t keep going past the next euros you would have thought, so maybe the target will end up around 50.
Lukaku’s averaging about 8 goals per year, and it’s not like there are any red hot young Belgian strikers in place to surpass him. So if he keeps going past the next world cup, then there is a small chance; weirder things have happened.
Not everyone keeps scoring regularly until 39 like Ronaldo
and it’s not like there are any red hot young Belgian strikers
Well, there is Openda who is very much on an upwards trajectory. I could see him take Lukaku’s starting spot when Lukaku gets a bit older and Openda gets even better. But even in that scenario, Lukaku will definitely still be in the squad and get playing time.
Lukaku has been playing regularly since he was 17 or something, he doesn’t have that much time ahead of him. Don’t see him being able to score 50 more international goals in his life.
Damn lukaky is just 30? I thought he was much older
He’s been playing for the Belgian NT since he was 17 and moved from Anderlecht to Chelsea when he was only 18. He was only 16 when he played with Anderlecht in the Europa League. He had his breakthrough seasons at West Brom and Everton when he was only 19 and 20 and was only 23 when he broke Everton’s topscorer record and finished second behind Kane in the seasonal topscorer list (who by the way is the same age). He was also the first non-English player ever to reach 50 PL goals before 23.
Lukaku seems like he’s been around for ages because he has been around for ages. Lukaku is that rare type of player that was already elite at an age where most players are still looking for their breakthrough.
Greatest stat padder of all time.
No harm but look at some of the teams he gets to play against in qualifying games. With Hazard and KDB and others of that quality around you it isn’t too surprising. Also helps that he’s a top class striker
Reached 50 goals 4 years ago, is at 83 today. Really impressive
He started off pretty slow considering where he is now.
Without trying to offend anyone but, EU qualifiers have a ton of really low level punching bags (we just seen France beat someone 14-0) and that is just not possible in other confederations
It’s very possible also in Asia and North America, it’s just South America which is unlucky (and partly also Africa, but they have Djbouti and Seychelles)
Scoring in Europe is much easier than SA due to numerous bad countries, and most of the all time great forwards came from SA (Messi, Pele, R9, Rivaldo, Maradona, Ronaldinho, Suarez, Milito, Forlan) so yeah.
Idk why you’re getting downvoted, you’re right. If the likes of Messi and Neymar regularly played against the likes of Andorra and Malta, they’d have significantly more goals than they do now.
Neymar is the most ridiculous one on this list. He isnt even a striker and has an insane goal per game ratio
In history
How are you suprised
People here don’t like to hear it, but it’s simply so much easier to get goals now than 20-40 years ago.
It’s not like he’s the only one playing today
is it? 40 years ago scorelines 10:0 were pretty normal, nowadays I would only say it’s easier because there are more competitions which means more matches
40 years ago was the 80s bro.
The craziest thing is that he has around 16 goals in his first 50 games and has been averaging around one goal per game since 2016 now.
200+ appearances for a national team as an outfield player is insane.
It’s honestly fitting that only Ronaldo, and probably Messi, will get to that number, at least for a few years.
Top two goalscorers as well, even more probable.
Proof that this state doesn’t mean anything about actual quality
The difference between Messi and ronaldo is 22 goals in 25 appearances. Messi to lukaku is 23 in 67. I feel like lukaku could become all time goal scorer if his game ages gracefully
Are this official games?
All games count for NT.
Arent all international games “official” games?