Cristiano Ronaldo has closed a 23-year international career that took him from a teenager replacing Luis Figo in a friendly to the greatest figure in Portugal’s history. His retirement, announced on Thursday, leaves behind a legacy of titles and unforgettable moments, but also two records that look more out of reach than ever, in men’s international soccer worldwide. The question now is whether anyone can ever get close.
The first is the goals record, in which the striker is the all-time top scorer for a national team. Ronaldo finished with 146 for Portugal, a total built over more than two decades that he kept growing until his final World Cup, where he scored his last international goal from the penalty spot against Croatia in the round of 32. The record has been his since 2021, when two goals against the Republic of Ireland took him to 111 and past Iran’s Ali Daei, who held it with 109.
The gap he leaves is enormous. Lionel Messi, the closest player on the list, ended his Argentina career with 126 goals, 20 fewer than Ronaldo, and since he retired in October after his farewell match against Benin, that total will not grow. Daei is long retired, and so is India’s Sunil Chhetri, who sits fourth on the list with 95 goals.
That leaves the active players with a mountain to climb. Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku, 33, has 94 goals and Poland’s Robert Lewandowski, 38, has 92, which puts both more than 50 goals short of Ronaldo. Given their ages, it is hard to imagine either of them catching up, and no one else is close enough to threaten the record.
234 caps: a mark that may be even harder to reach
The appearances record tells a similar story. Ronaldo finished with 234 caps for Portugal, a figure that makes him the most-capped player in the history of men’s international soccer. He broke the previous record of 196, held by Kuwait’s Bader Al-Mutawa, in 2023, and he was the first player to reach 200 appearances, a milestone he hit against Iceland in a Euro 2024 qualifier.
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Behind him, the list is shorter on active players than it looks. Messi finished second with 208 caps, 26 fewer than Ronaldo, but he has already retired. The only name in the top five who could still add to his total is third-placed Luka Modric, with 206 caps for Croatia. At 41 years old, however, he would need more than 30 additional appearances to challenge Ronaldo, something that looks highly unlikely.
In the end, both records speak of the same thing: longevity and consistency at the highest level. To catch Ronaldo, a player would have to score at an elite rate and stay on the national team for more than two decades, without serious injuries or a drop in form.
With Messi, Daei and the rest of the list already gone, and the active names far behind, the numbers that Ronaldo leaves behind, 146 goals and 234 caps, may stand for generations.
