After becoming just the second men’s player to score more than 100 international goals, Cristiano Ronaldo has now toppled Ali Daei’s international record of 109. Daei had held the mantle of most international goals since 2003, when he surpassed Ferenc Puskas’s record of 84.
The Portugal and Manchester United forward broke the men’s record — Christine Sinclair tops the women’s charts with 187 goals in 304 games for Canada — against the Republic of Ireland on Wednesday with a pair of headers, 17 years after he scored his first international goal at Euro 2004.
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Daei’s 109th and final international goal came against Costa Rica in a friendly on March 1, 2006, with the then 36-year-old scoring the second in a game that finished 3-2 to Iran. On the same day, a 21-year-old Ronaldo scored his 10th and 11th for his nation in a 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia. The first, a now-classic header from a corner taken by Luis Figo, the second a left-footed strike into the bottom right, assisted by a through-ball from Hugo Viana.
One hundred and eleven goals is a number worth celebrating, analysing and digesting.
Here, The Athletic takes a look at the stories behind the 111, including how they were scored, who they were scored against, and who they were assisted by, and also looking at which players might have Ronaldo’s record in their sights…
When were the goals scored?
Ronaldo has been a more prolific second-half goalscorer than in first halves, scoring 23 more goals after his half-time cuppa. The bulk of his goals have come between the 76th and 85th minutes of matches, with 19 coming in that period.
His dead spot is between the 11th and 20th minutes, with goals against Argentina in 2011, Sweden in 2017 and Germany at Euro 2020 being his only three.
How were they scored?
Despite being predominantly right-footed, the former Juventus and Real Madrid forward didn’t score with his strongest foot until his sixth international goal. He opened his Portugal account with goals with his head, head, left foot, head and left foot, before finally scoring with his right against Russia in a 7-1 win in an October 2004 World Cup qualifier.
He has balanced things out over the course of his 111 goals though, scoring 25 goals with his left foot, 59 with his right and 27 with his head. Remove penalties (14) and direct free-kicks (10) from the equation — set-play goals where he’s always going to use his strongest foot — and he’s got a fairly even split in open play among his right foot (35), left foot (25) and head (27).
Who has set him up?
Given Ronaldo’s international goals have come over a 17-year period, he has played alongside plenty of different team-mates.
Of course, not all goals are assisted, and the data below — per UEFA — doesn’t credit with an assist those players who win penalties or direct free kicks that Ronaldo then scores from. There are also a handful of goals that are unassisted too (such as a chip he scored against Luxembourg in 2019) when his pressing forced a turnover.
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Ronaldo’s first international goal came as he won his eighth cap in the tournament opener on home soil at Euro 2004 against Greece. The goal was a mere consolation in a 2-1 loss to the tournament’s eventual winners, in a dress rehearsal for its final, with Ronaldo heading in a Figo corner in the 93rd minute.
🗓 #OnThisDay in 2004:
⚽️ No. 1⃣ @selecaoportugal by @Cristiano! 🙌🎉#WednesdayMotivation | #EURO2004 | #EURO2020 pic.twitter.com/ZfYmFvoToS
— UEFA.com DE (@UEFAcom_de) June 12, 2019
His double that secured the record saw him as the recipient of a couple of crosses from the right-hand side, the first from Goncalo Guedes, the second by Joao Mario.
In total, 32 players have assisted Ronaldo in scoring for Portugal, with Ricardo Quaresma and Joao Moutinho doing so the most, both creating eight goals. Those two have arguably had the largest windows in which to provide assists for Ronaldo, making their debuts in 2003 and 2005 respectively, and racking up 80 and 135 caps each.
Bernardo Silva perhaps has the greatest chance of finishing as Ronaldo’s top assister, with the Manchester City midfielder just two behind Moutinho and Quaresma and a regular starter under Fernando Santos.
Which competitions were the goals scored in?
Looking at the competitions Ronaldo has scored his 111 goals in, the majority have come during World Cup and European Championship qualification. Interestingly, he’s only scored 19 times in friendlies, which is the third-highest total.
Looking at his goals-per-cap across the competitions, it’s intriguing to see just how much Ronaldo’s scoring record drops off in friendlies. It’s understandable that he doesn’t maintain his scoring within tournaments themselves — the stakes, and quality of opposition, are usually higher — but in friendly matches, he’s scoring just over once in every three games.
Perhaps it’s because in these matches the quality of opposition can actually be tougher than in Euros or World Cup qualifying, or that the low stakes nature of the game doesn’t bring out the best in him.
Who has he scored most frequently against?
Of the nations Ronaldo has scored the most goals against, few are what you would label as powerful footballing nations.
Lithuania and Sweden share the title of “most Ronaldo goals conceded” on seven apiece, with Andorra, Hungary and Luxembourg not far behind on six each.
One interesting stat is that Ronaldo has never scored against England, and it was not until this summer’s Euros that he scored against France, netting twice in a 2-2 draw with Didier Deschamps’ world champions in the group stage.
Notably, he had never scored against the Republic of Ireland before breaking the scoring record against them last night.
Comparisons to Messi and Daei?
Any article about Ronaldo wouldn’t be complete without some sort of comparison to Lionel Messi, but given Daei’s importance to the conversation too, his international record will also be taken into account.
Looking at the proportion of their goals that were game-winners is a good place to start, as it’s a number that can indicate the weight of the goals on the overall outcome of a match. Given all three men have played a different amount of games and scored a separate number of goals, looking at the share of their goals that were game-winners is arguably the most appropriate way of comparing them.
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In doing so, there’s very little between Messi and Ronaldo by this measure.
Thirteen per cent of Ronaldo’s total international goals have been game-winners, a smidgen above Messi’s 12 per cent and notably higher than Daei’s nine per cent.
While not being the game winner, it’s also worth looking at goals that gave their teams the lead.
Here, we see Daei wasn’t always the player to score that important go-ahead goal — doing so with just 37 per cent of his 109 — and was more prone to increasing leads Iran already held.
Ronaldo and Messi are, again, very close by this measure. Ronaldo’s goals have given Portugal the lead 43 per cent of the time, whereas Messi’s have put Argentina in front 41 per cent of the time.
The one notable difference between Messi and Ronaldo when looking at the scoreline impact of their goals is that the former has never scored a goal where Argentina were still losing afterwards, always either equalising, giving them a lead or increasing one. Ronaldo has scored three such goals — his first one against Greece at Euro 2004, Denmark in 2011 and Ukraine in 2019 — all coming in games where Portugal were 2-0 down and ending up suffering a 2-1 defeat.
Looking at the proportion of games won when scoring, Ronaldo and Messi are very close again.
Argentina win 84 per cent of the time when Messi scores, Portugal win 82 per cent of the matches when Ronaldo does. Messi’s Argentina have lost just three games in which he’s scored (five per cent of total games) whereas Ronaldo’s Portugal have been beaten in seven (10 per cent of the total games he has scored in).
Lastly, there is one category where neither Messi nor Ronaldo lead: the proportion of unique games scored in.
Daei scored in 74 of his 149 games for Iran, roughly half. Ronaldo has scored in 73 of his 180 games, a tad over 40 per cent. Messi lags behind both, scoring in just 56 of 151 appearances, which is 37 per cent.
As ever, there’s little to separate Messi from Ronaldo, even on the international stage.
Who could challenge him?
So now he’s passed Daei, who could eventually topple Ronaldo?
Of course, it remains to be seen what the 36-year-old’s final tally will be, but looking below at the scorers who have notched 50 goals or more at international level and are still playing, there are a trio of players in the hunt.
The likes of Messi, Robert Lewandowski of Poland and Uruguay’s Luis Suarez are alongside some of the extremely prolific strikers from smaller nations such as India’s Sunil Chhetri, Bader Al-Mutawa of Kuwait and the Maldives’ Ali Ashfaq, but those elite three are all the wrong side of 30 themselves and not scoring often enough to realistically catch Ronaldo.
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Brazil’s Neymar, Romelu Lukaku of Belgium and the United Arab Emirates’s Ali Mabkhout are all young enough and scoring at a rate of over a goal every two caps.
The dotted lines on the graphic below point to the cap number the player will reach 111 goals by if they continue scoring at their current rate, with their age noted in the circle.
Neymar and Lukaku are averaging 0.61 and 0.65 goals per cap respectively. At that rate, the Brazilian is expected to equal Ronaldo’s record on the day he wins his 182nd cap, which is 71 games away, and the Belgian is likely to require 72 more appearances.
While you might not have heard of Mabkhout, he’s perhaps the best bet to equal or better Ronaldo’s record.
The Emirati has spent his whole career at the Al Jazira club in his homeland, scoring 185 goals in 283 appearances, averaging 0.65 goals per game. For his country he’s even more prolific, averaging 0.83 goals per game.
Being six years younger than Ronaldo, there’s also plenty of time for him to break the record, provided he stays fit and keeps scoring regularly.
For now though, the record belongs to Ronaldo.
(Photos: Getty Images/Design: Tom Slator)
