Cristiano Ronaldo, despite not winning a major honour with Portugal, is the name that will forever be remembered as the greatest goalscorer in international football history. Over the years since stepping out for his nation in 2003 under Luiz Felipe Scolari, the in-front-of-goal menace has mastered the art of goalscoring down to a tee.
A total of 225 matches for Portugal later, and he's scored a mind-numbing number of goals – 143. But it didn't start rampantly for the 40-year-old as it did with others. Erling Haaland, for example, has been a goalscoring sensation for Norway ever since his debut in 2019.
Erling Haaland (Norway)
Using figures provided by the folks over at Transfermarkt, we're here to take a closer look at some of the best goalscorers international football has ever witnessed – but there's a twist. Instead of evaluating players over their entire career, the search has been narrowed down to how long it took them to reach 50 goals for their respective countries.
Spoiler alert: neither Ronaldo nor Lionel Messi, who are arguably the two best footballers to ever live, feature as it took them a tad longer to get up to speed on the international stage.
Notable Omissions, Messi and Ronaldo Included
cristiano ronaldo
Let's start with some notable omissions: Messi and Ronaldo, as mentioned, are two of the biggest names to miss out on the top ten. Respectively, for Argentina and Portugal, it took them 107 and 114 games. England hero Wayne Rooney also reached the 50-goal mark by the time he picked up the 107th appearance of his 120-match career for the Three Lions.
Many would assume that because Neymar Jr is Brazil's all-time leading goalscorer, combined with the fact that he was so captivating at a young age, that he'd have notched an abundance of goals at the start of his career for Brazil. That is far from the case, however, with the now-33-year-old reaching the 50-goal tally in 74 games, just the behind tenth place.
Kylian Mbappe followed in the footsteps of Neymar – but for France instead. Shouldered with a lot of the goalscoring responsibility from such a young age, the talismanic forward has tended to score at an alarming rate for club and country. For Les Bleus, he's struck 53 times in 93 caps, but the first 50 of those took him 90 matches in total.
10 Harry Kane, England – 71 games
England striker Harry Kane in action
England, over the years, have been blessed with some incredible goalscorers. Wayne Rooney, Sir Bobby Charlton, Gary Lineker and the like spring to mind, but none of the aforementioned trio struck as frequently as Harry Kane, who is now earning his corn in Germany for Bayern Munich. In fact, the former fan favourite at Tottenham Hotspur is top of the Three Lions' all-time goalscorers chart.
What works in the London-born striker's favour is that he can score in any sort of situation: it doesn't matter whether the ball is played into perfectly or not, he possesses the technical brilliance to worm a shooting opportunity out of it. Kane is regarded, by many, as one of the most complete centre-forwards to ever live thanks to his well-rounded toolkit.
9 Ali Daei, Iran – 69 games
Ali Daei
Widely regarded as one of the greatest Asian players to grace what we call the beautiful game, Ali Daei was nicknamed the 'Iranian Maradona' for a reason. He held the record for the most international goals of all time before Cristiano Ronaldo usurped his total of 108 in 2021 before Lionel Messi did the same; though he remains just one of three players to break the 100-goal mark on the international scene.
His first 50 were plundered 69 games into his illustrious, goal-laden career for Iran. Daei, now 56 years of age but fondly remembered for his tenacious nature in the box for club and country, started his club career in Asia but moved to Germany in 1997 to join Arminia Bielefeld before hopping over to Bavaria to join Bayern Munich.
8 Lajos Tichy, Hungary – 68 games
Flórián Albert (left) and Lajos Tichy.Flórián Albert (left) and Lajos Tichy.
Well-versed in the art of goalscoring, as evidenced by his place on this list, Lajos Tichy (on the right in the above picture) was revered as one of the best finishers of his generation. Born in the capital city of Budapest, the 1935-born centre-forward made his Hungary debut at the age of 20 in 1955 and went on to score 51 goals for his country in 72 games.
Only one of those came in the final four games, however, as Tichy reached the 50-goal landmark on his 68th appearance for Hungary. Of course, that's a superb rate for a striker that often goes under the radar when mentioning his nation's elite goalscorers; he also found the back of the net with ease at club level, though he did spend much of his career in his homeland's top flight.
7 Romario, Brazil – 65 games
Brazil's Romario holding a Brazilian flag.
Extraordinarily iconic in the box, Romario was a top-tier finisher throughout the entirety of his career: from the start of his career with boyhood club Vasco de Gama to his free-scoring spells at PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona, Flamengo and the like. That notion can also be applied to his international career, which began in 1987 and concluded in 2005.
Despite having competition from Ronaldo Nazario in the latter stages of his international venture, Romario was a prominent figure for Brazil and that's evidenced by the rampant rate at which he scored goals. In fact, in 2000, there was a two-game period where he notched seven strikes – and it took him just 65 games to reach the 50-goal tally for his country.
6 Imre Schlosser, Hungary – 50 games
Puskas Arena
The second of three Hungarian talismen to feature, Imre Schlosser scored at a rate of one goal per international match and, you guessed it, he reached the 50-goal watershed on his 50th appearance. Incredibly, he was the first man to score 50 international goals after hitting the landmark figure in 1917 but ended his Hungary career just before he hit 60.
All in all, Schlosser was born into a period where Hungarian strikers were all the rage – and his tally of 59 strikes in 68 appearances for his nation just proves that he is worthy of being mentioned in said conversations. A seven-time Hungarian league top goalscorer, Schlosser was evidently just as keen to get in positions to score goals at club level too.
5 Pele, Brazil – 49 games
Pele lifting the World Cup trophy.Photo courtesy of Reuters.
A man who needs zero introduction, Pele is a holder of many records – but that is not the case here with him hitting the half-century mark in 49 matches. Five-time World Cup winners Brazil, as a footballing nation, have boasted all manner of talent over the years but none of them can boast the goalscoring prowess of the icon in the spotlight; Ronaldo Nazario, however, is a very close second.
More an artist than a footballer, Pele acquired a knack for beating defenders with relative ease in his heyday and, although his overall goalscoring record is based on loose evidence, what cannot be disputed was his rampant nature in the final third. After all, the late world-beater is widely recognised as one of the greatest footballers of all time – and for good reason too.
4 Erling Haaland, Norway – 46 games
erling haaland-2
The latest entry onto this star-studded list, Erling Haaland may be Norway's leading marksman – but there are still three players in football history to reach the 50-goal mark in fewer games. The lanky striker's instinctive nature usually results in goals flooding in left, right and centre when he's at the peak of his powers. Even when he isn't, you can still count on him bulging the net.
In a nutshell, Haaland is – by far – one of the most natural-born goalscorers of his generation and there are plenty of records that are going to be left in tatters by the time he packs up shop. Ali Daei, who scored his 100th goal for Iran on his 131st cap, is the quickest player to reach the century mark; but it's a question of when, not if, he'll surpass the Iranian?
3 Gerd Muller, Germany – 41 games
Gerd Muller for Bayern
A sharpshooter of the highest order, Gerd Muller, one of the highest goalscorers in football history, was simply sensational in front of goal. Whether it was a tap-in, a well-worked strike or a header, you can often bet your bottom dollar it was him – nicknamed Der Bomber – getting on the end of it, whether that be for club or country. In truth, few players can hold a candle to the sort of numbers he threw up on a season-by-season basis.
Remarkably, the 1970 Ballon d'Or winner concluded his international career with more goals than matches played (68 in 62) and he reached the landmark moment for West Germany in 1972. Forever part of the furniture in German football circles, his array of goalscoring records doesn't do Gerd the justice he deserves. For this list, he scored 50 goals in a mere 41 games.
2 Sandor Kocsis, Hungary – 40 games
On a similar note to Muller, Sandor Kocsis concluded his time as Hungary's go-to choice up top with more goals to boot than matches under his belt – 75 in 68. Let that sink in for a moment: the Barcelona hero's goal-to-game ratio was a mind-numbing 1.10 per match! Kocsis played such a starring role in Hungary's most fruitful period in their footballing history.
In his first 50 appearances for the Central European nation, Kocsis – born and raised, similarly to many, many others, in Budapest – is adored by those studious enough to know Hungarian football history, but he's rarely brought up in ordinary conversations otherwise. But some suggest he was as potent as his fellow countryman Ferenc Puskas, and the numbers give that notion plenty of substance.
1 Poul Nielsen, Denmark – 36 games
stadium
Rounding off the list is Poul Nielsen, who led the line for Denmark early in the 20th century between 1910 and 1924 and, in that 14-year period, he became one of the most lethal frontmen to ever play international football. His record of a half-century strikes in 36 matches, which equates to a goal every 68 minutes, is a record that is deemed either unbreakable or unreachable by many.
Born in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in 1891, the brilliance of Nielsen is seldom recognised in folklore – but his record, decades on from his passing, continues to live on, all while keeping the flag of the Danish national team flying high. Because the centre-forward's career for Denmark spanned the infancy of international football, it means he never played at a World Cup; but you cannot doubt his in-front-of-goal potency.