Cristiano Ronaldo spent only this Thursday leading the list of footballers with the most matches in history, with 197 matches, when he was Roberto Martínez’s first choice in Portugal’s duel with Liechtenstein, on the way to Euro 2024.
After having lost the title to the Benfica player Gonçalo Ramos in the final phase of the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo has now recovered it with the arrival of the Spanish coach, who succeeded Fernando Santos, while he was sworn in as Poland coach.
The 38-year-old Portuguese footballer makes his 197th appearance with the AA team in Alvalade and, according to official FIFA data, leaves Bader Al-Mutawa behind, who was left out of the options of the Kuwaiti coach, the Portuguese Rui Bento . , due to the clashes in March with the Philippines and Tajikistan.
Ronaldo was already alone at the top of the national team’s goalscoring list, with 118 goals, after surpassing the numbers – long considered ‘unreachable’ – by Iranian Ali Daei, further reinforcing his status on the throne of the gods. of American football.
If he remains in the options of Roberto Martínez, Ronaldo has everything to become the first player to reach 200 appearances with a national team and further strengthen his status as top scorer, although the Argentine Lionel Messi, two and a half years younger and eternal rival of the Portuguese, can represent a ‘threat’.
The captain of the Argentine team, who recently celebrated winning the World Cup, has played 172 games with the South American team (he is 13th in the world ranking) and scored 98 goals, which places him in third place among scorers .
Ronaldo made his debut with the Portuguese team on August 20, 2003, in a friendly against Kazakhstan (1-0), at Chaves, under the command of Brazilian Luiz Felipe Scolari, and reached the 100-match mark on October 16, 2012. , against Northern Ireland, in Porto, on the way to the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
The Portuguese soccer team faces Liechtenstein, at the Estádio José Alvalade, in Lisbon, on the first day of Group J qualifying for the 2024 Euro Cup.
Players with the most caps and goals per team:
Games
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – 197
2. Badr Al-Mutawa (Kuwait) – 196
3. Ahmed Hassan (Egypt) – 184
4. Ahmed Mubarak (Oman) – 183
5. Sergio Ramos (Spain) – 180
Goals
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) – 118 goals
2. Ali Daei (Iran) – 109
3. Lionel Messi (Argentina) – 98
4. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary) – 84
5. Sunil Chetri (India) – 84
Source: TSF
