Ronaldo leaves nine international records hard to match

Ronaldo leaves behind nine records that Kooora considers unlikely to be matched soon. The most striking is his international goals total: with 146, he is 20 ahead of Lionel Messi and 38 clear of Ali Daei, the outlet reports. Messi has also announced his international retirement during the current year, Kooora says.

Among active players, Romelu Lukaku is closest to Ronaldo’s tally, with 94 goals. At 33, catching the Portuguese star will be difficult, Kooora says. Robert Lewandowski has scored 92 and can still add to his total, but also remains some way behind. Harry Kane, meanwhile, can continue scoring for England; he would need more than 50 goals to equal and then surpass Ronaldo’s record, according to Kooora.

The gap is also apparent in Kylian Mbappé’s figures: the French forward has 67 international goals, less than half of Ronaldo’s total. And the Portuguese record is not built on scoring alone. Ronaldo has made 234 appearances for Portugal, putting him at the top of the international appearances list, Kooora reports. He represented his national team for 23 years, a span the outlet considers particularly difficult to replicate.

Other figures underline the consistency and reach of his international scoring. Ronaldo found the net in 96 different matches for Portugal and scored against 49 national teams. In the latter category, he is three teams ahead of Messi. Among active players, Qatari Hassan Al-Haydos, Al Sadd’s captain, is closest to Ronaldo with 193 international appearances, but still has a long way to go to approach the top.

In European competition, Kooora also credits Ronaldo with the highest goals tally in the European Championship, at 14, as well as the most appearances in the tournament, with 30. The outlet adds that he scored at all six World Cup editions in which he took part. As for the European goals record, Harry Kane could be a contender, though Kooora frames that prospect cautiously: he may have only one more opportunity. If the next competition is his last, he would need eight goals to surpass Ronaldo, a tally only Platini has managed in a single edition, according to the outlet.