Ronaldo Dethrones Pelé as 5th Best All-Time International Goal Scorer

It’s hard to believe, but Cristiano Ronaldo is now the 5th all-time international goal scorer, with 78 goals overall.

Source: Upper 90 Studios

And the person he overtook? Pelé.

The Brazilian legend took to Twitter last Friday to congratulate the Portuguese superstar.

Ronaldo’s feat came on Thursday night against the Faroe Islands, in a match that saw Ronaldo score yet another hattrick for Portugal. Portugal was on home ground, at the Estádio do Bessa, in Porto, and the home crowd saw Ronaldo score goals in the 3rd, 29th and 65th minutes, in a World Cup qualifying Group B match which Portugal needed to win, if they were to keep pace with undefeated top-of-group Switzerland.

Ronaldo now belongs to an elite club – only four other players have score more international goals than CR7. Pelé ended his glorious career with 77 international goals. The Portuguese captain is now tied with Iraq’s Hussein Saeed, both with 78 goals.

Here is the current international goal scorer list:

PLAYER	COUNTRY	GOALS
Ali Daei	Iran	109
Ferenc Puskas	Hungary	84
Kunishige Kamamoto	Japan	80
Godfrey Chitalu	Zambia	79
CRISTIANO RONALDO	PORTUGAL	78
Hussein Saeed	Iraq	78
Pelé	Brazil	77

The 32 year-old shows no signs of slowing down his goal-scoring prowess, howeer. After last Thursday’s match, he expressed to Portugal’s RTP reporters that he was ‘thoroughly enjoying his current form and performances for Portugal.’ It is clear that Ronaldo is no longer the explosive winger he was a few years ago, but he has completely transformed his play of late. He is now playing more centrally, and scoring at every opportunity.

Given his current form, is it highly likely that Ronaldo will end up among the top two on this list. And based on his current record-breaking form, he may even top this list before he retires for his country.
Do you think Ronaldo will continue his current goal-scoring form for Portugal, or are his days numbered?

• The Portugueezer