Nine Ronaldo Records That May Never Be Broken

Cristiano Ronaldo brought an end to an international career spanning more than two decades in a video message last Thursday. He will never again take the field in his national team's shirt. Ronaldo has set countless records for Portugal, but there are nine records that may remain untouched in football history forever.

Cristiano Ronaldo is the all-time top scorer in international football, with 146 goals for Portugal. His nearest rival, Lionel Messi, recently retired from international football 20 goals behind him. Ali Daei, who lost the record to Ronaldo, is 38 goals behind.

Among players still active, Belgium's Romelu Lukaku is closest to Ronaldo, with 94 goals. At 33 years old, chasing the Portuguese star's record will be extremely difficult for him. Next comes Poland's Robert Lewandowski with 92 goals. Harry Kane, currently in sparkling form for England, would need more than 50 more goals to overtake Ronaldo.

It took Ronaldo a long time to build this goalscoring record. In a 23-year career he has played 234 matches in Portugal's shirt, putting him at the top of the list of most-capped international players.

Ronaldo has played 26 more matches than Messi, whose tally stands at 208. Luka Modric, 41 years old and nearing the end of his international career, is 28 matches behind his former Real Madrid teammate. Among active players, Qatar's Hassan Al Haydos is nearest to Ronaldo's match count, with the Al Sadd captain having played 193 international matches.

Ronaldo has not been bent by age; instead he has become even sharper in the second half of his career. After turning 30 he scored 94 goals for his country, compared with just 52 before that.

Messi is second on the list of goals scored after the age of 30, with 68. Ronaldo's record is genuinely hard to break, because only four footballers in history have scored 94 or more goals in their entire careers.

It is not only the number of goals that stands out, but also the number of matches in which he scored. Ronaldo has found the net in 96 different matches for Portugal. In the history of international football, only Ronaldo, Messi and Ali Daei have achieved this feat.

In Portugal's shirt, Ronaldo has scored against 49 different national teams, three more teams than Messi. New opponents keep emerging around the world, so future generations will probably get chances to play against more national teams, but matching Ronaldo's feat remains a huge challenge.

Ronaldo scored in every year of his 23-year career, remaining relentless in front of goal across more than two decades. To break this record, someone would have to start playing young, keep playing for a long time, and never go a year without scoring.

Although he could not become the World Cup's all-time top scorer, Ronaldo is the highest scorer in the European Championship, with 14 goals on Europe's biggest stage. The Portugal captain is five goals ahead of his nearest rival, France's Michel Platini, who scored nine. Spain's Alvaro Morata and England's Harry Kane are joint third with seven goals each. At the next tournament they will be 35 and 34 years old respectively; whether they can thumb their noses at age like Ronaldo and score eight more goals, only time will tell.

Ronaldo has also played the most matches in the Euros, 30, so that record is his too. Breaking it is also very difficult, because in one edition of the tournament a team can play at most seven matches, if it reaches the final. To challenge this record, a player would have to play in at least four editions and reach the final, and then play one more match as well, meaning six editions!

Excluding goalkeepers, Ronaldo and Messi are the only outfield players to have played in six World Cups. But in one respect the Portuguese star is ahead of the Argentine forward: he scored in every edition. Touching this feat is almost impossible. A player would have to stay at the top level of international football for nearly two decades, his country would have to qualify for every edition, and he would have to score in each one. The World Cup comes once every four years, so playing in six editions is a mountainous challenge, and scoring in all of them is something else entirely.