Top 10 all-time national team scorers: Ronaldo and Messi lead, Lewandowski ranks seventh, Haaland not obsessed with stats

In the early hours of October 13th Beijing time, during the 8th round of Group G in the UEFA World Cup qualifiers, Poland secured a 2-0 away win over Lithuania, with Lewandowski netting a goal to reach 87 goals in his national team career, ranking him seventh on the all-time scoring chart.

Top 10 all-time national team scorers:

• 1st: Cristiano Ronaldo/Portugal, 224 caps, 141 goals, still playing.
• 2nd: Lionel Messi/Argentina, 194 caps, 114 goals, still active.
• 3rd: Ali Daei/Iran, 148 caps, 108 goals, retired.
• 4th: Sunil Chhetri/India, 156 caps, 95 goals, still playing.
• 5th: Mokhtar Dahari/Malaysia, 142 caps, 89 goals, retired.
• Tied 5th: Romelu Lukaku/Belgium, 124 caps, 89 goals, still active.
• 7th: Lewandowski/Poland, 161 caps, 87 goals, still playing.
• 8th: Ali Mabkhout/UAE, 115 caps, 85 goals, still active.
• 9th: Ferenc Puskás/Hungary, 89 caps, 84 goals, retired.
• 10th: Neymar/Brazil, 128 caps, 79 goals, still playing.

The value of national team goals, especially in European World Cup qualifiers, has been somewhat diminished by Haaland scoring 8 goals in just 2 qualifier matches.At 25 years old, Haaland has scored 50 goals in 46 appearances for Norway’s national team, which is an astonishing feat — Haaland reached 50 international goals in only 46 matches, whereasCristiano Ronaldo took 114 games, Messi 107, Lewandowski and Mbappé 90 each, Neymar 74, and Kane 71 games to reach the same milestone..

Fortunately, Haaland only participates in the World Cup qualifiers and is not fixated on boosting his national team stats. Norway had a bye in this week’s qualifier round and played a friendly against New Zealand. Haaland left early to return to Manchester City to prepare for their Premier League match against Everton, giving him ample rest. Otherwise, given his 8 goals in the last 2 qualifiers, he would likely have set new scoring records against New Zealand.