Two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo on Wednesday night, June 23, 2021, helped Portugal to scale through to the Euro 2020 round of 16 as one of the best losers of the group stage.
That is not the news, the news is, the 36-year-old Portuguese footballer is a goal away from being the player with the highest number of international goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s two goals from the penalty spot against France on Wednesday night increased his international goals tally from 107 to 109. This is means that he is currently the joint top scorer in international football. The Portuguese football icon equaled the record set by Iranian ex-footballer, Ali Daei who scored 109 goals for Iran between 1993 and 2006.
As it stands, if Cristiano Ronaldo scores against Belgium in the round of 16 stage of Euro 2020 on June 27, he would be the first player in the history of international football to score 110 goals.
Before then, Ronaldo and Ali Daei remain the only two male footballers to ever score above 90 goals each for their countries.
How Cristiano Ronaldo equaled Ali Daei’s goalscoring record
Cristiano Ronaldo has never scored against France until Wednesday, June 23, 2021, when he faced the team in Euro 2020 group game which ended 2-2. The two penalties he scored did not only give him his first goals against the current World Cup winners but made him the joint topscorer in international football.
He got to 109 goals in his international football career after scoring 89 goals inside the box eighteen and 20 goals outside the eighteen-yard box.
Out of the 109 goals he scored for Portugal, 14 of them were scored via spot-kicks and nine were scored via free kicks.
Among the teams he has played against in international football, Lithuania and Sweden have suffered more from his goalscoring prowess. Cristiano Ronaldo has scored seven goals each against the two countries.
Out of his 109 goals, Cristiano Ronaldo scored 31 of them during European Championship qualifiers, 31 goals during World Cup qualifiers, 19 goals during International friendlies, 13 goals during European Championship, 7 goals during World Cups, 5 and 2 goals during Uefa Nations League and Confederations Cup respectively.
Ronaldo and his goalscoring records
In international football, no player has done as much as Cristiano Ronaldo has done apart from Ali Daei who he might outperform in the coming days.
Besides being the top scorer in men’s international football, the Portuguese football icon is the all-time top scorer in UEFA Champions League (134 goals in 176 appearances).
He is currently Europe’s all-time highest goalscorer in the European Championship and FIFA World Cup with combined goals of 20. While he is the all-time highest goalscorer in the European Championship with 13 goals.
The most unlikely thing in the career of the 36-year-old Portuguese forward is to attempt to break the all-time goalscoring record which is being held by Canada female striker Christine Sinclair. The woman has scored 186 goals in 299 caps and she is still active in the game.
Aside from that, Cristiano Ronaldo is untouchable in men’s football especially when it comes to scoring goals in the international arena. Even his career rival, Lionel Messi is not even close as the 34-year-old Argentine forward has only 73 goals in 147 appearances for Argentina while Ronaldo has 109 goals in 178 games for Portugal.
Based on the goalscoring form of Messi, it might take the 34-year-old footballer at least 6 years to score 27 goals to reach the 100 goals mark which might be almost impossible based on his age.
