Cristiano Ronaldo became the second men’s player in the history of football to score 100 international goals on Tuesday in a match against Sweden.
Portugal was up against Sweden in the UEFA Nations League Match; Ronaldo’s goal at the 45th minute not only gave Portugal a 1-0 lead but also celebrated Ronaldo’s name in men’s football history.
The game ended at 2-0, both of the goals were scored by the 35-year old Juventus forward. With the fantastic move, Ronaldo is now the only European to have reached such a milestone.
Ronaldo scored his last international goal in November 2019 against Luxembourg. The matter was the 57th free-kick goal of his career and 10th for his nation, according to Indian Express.
Cristiano made a recent post on Instagram, saying that 101 goals are not enough, and he would try to score 111 goals for his country to become the highest goal scorer in the history of men’s football.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CE47vVCAXDR/
Ronaldo’s career: so far
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has six international hat tricks to his name. He has scored seven goals at the FIFA World Cup stage and another nine at the UEFA Euros.
Ronaldo is the active leader in terms of international goals, holding a pretty substantial margin against competitors like Sunil Chhetri and Lionel Messi.
Sunil Chhetri from India has scored 72 goals in 115 games, and Lionel Messi from Argentina has scored 70 goals in 138 games. All three of them are older than 30 years.
Ronaldo scored his first international goal at the age of 19 at the UEFA Euro 2004. Ronaldo easily surpasses Pauleta, who scored 47 goals before retiring from the sport in 2006. With Ronaldo’s current score of 101 goals, it seems like a long time before anyone from his country would surpass the milestone.
Although Ronaldo failed to emerge victorious in the UEFA Euro 2004 finals, he has gone on to lead Portugal to major international victories in UEFA Euro 2016 and the inaugural UEFA Nations league title in 2019.
Who was the first to score 100 goals?
Before this, only Ali Daei from Iran had achieved this feat in the sadi category. Daei retired with 109 goals to his name, making him the top-scorer in terms of goals in the international men’s football division.
Ali Daei scored 109 goals in his 149 appearances in international matches as compared to Ronaldo, who managed to achieve the 100-mark in 165 appearances.
In comparison, a total of 17 women have been able to achieve 100 international goals. Canada’s Christine Sinclair remains to be the highest scorer with 186 goals to her name.