Six active players ahead of the Belgian
Romelu Lukaku scored more international goals for Belgium than few other footballers in history for their country. After his 78th goal in the European Championship qualifier against Austria in his 111th appearance with the “Red Devils”, the next step is to make it into the top 10, where Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are waiting. A look at the TM statistics reveals: If Lukaku continues with the previous quota, he is likely to overtake one or two football legends in the rankings in his career.
Lukaku beckons top 10: players with the most international goals
Lukaku has long been ahead in the internal Belgian best list. The second-placed top scorer, Eden Hazard, scored 33 goals, less than half as many as the leader. But many other nations don’t have anyone like Lukaku. With the German national team, Miroslav Klose ended his career with 71 goals, which is likely to remain a record in the very long term. For France, where 24-year-old Kylian Mbappé has just moved into fourth place with 42 goals, 37-year-old Olivier Giroud has collected the most goals so far with 54 goals. Spain (David Villa, 59 goals), Italy (Luigi Riva, 35) and England (Harry Kane, 59) are also far behind the Belgian photographer.
There are still some big names ahead of Lukaku. Brazil’s Neymar, who, like Lukaku, just left Seleção icon Pelé (77 goals in 92 games) behind him, has 79 goals in significantly more games (127). Poland’s Robert Lewandowski (81 goals) and Lionel Messi (104) for Argentina and Cristiano Ronaldo (125) for Portugal also have more goals, but a slightly weaker rate in relation to the number of games than Lukaku. That comes to 0.7 goals per international match. Among the still active players with a comparable goal tally, only Ali Mabkhout (33) for the United Arab Emirates has a better value of 0.76.
Meanwhile, Lukaku could continue scoring goals against Sweden in European Championship qualifying Group F on Monday and make it into the top 10 of all national players in history. Thanks to Lukaku’s shooting qualities, the Belgians already booked their ticket for the European Championships in Germany in 2024 in the 3-2 win against Austria in Vienna on Friday.
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