LIONEL MESSI SECOND

• Oct 29, 2024
• History Statistics

Messi, now all-time 2nd top scorer of national teams 

After a hat-trick vs Bolivia in an October World Cup qualifier, Messi reached 112 goals for Argentina surpassing Ali Daei (109) in the historical ranking of the national team goal-scorers.
Now Messi is placed second following Cristiano Ronaldo (133) while Daei, former record holder, stepped down to the third position.
Only they three managed to reach the mark of 100 goals so far. 40-year old Sunil Chhetri has retired from international football this summer with 6 goals apart from the landmark.
As for Messi, Bolivia proved to be his favorite victim - 11 goals (the next is Ecuador, 7)

	BEST      SCORERS	NATIONAL	TEAMS
	Player	Team(s)	Career	Goals	Games
1	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	2003-	133	216
2	Lionel Messi	Argentina	2005-	112	189
3	Ali Daei	Iran	1993-2006	109	148
4	Sunil Chhetri	India	2005-2024	94	151
5	Mokhtar Dahari	Malaysia	1972-1985	89	142
6	Ali Mabkhout	UAE	2009-	85	115
7	Romelu Lukaku	Belgium	2010-	85	119
8	Ferenc Puskás	Hungary, Spain	1945-1962	84	89
9	Robert Lewandowski	Poland	2008-	84	156
10	Godfrey Chitalu	Zambia	1968-1980	79	111
11	Neymar	Brazil	2010-	79	128
12	Hussein Saeed	Iraq	1976-1990	78	137
13	Pelé	Brazil	1957-1971	77	92
14	Vivian Woodward	England, England Am.	1903-1914	75	53
15	Sándor Kocsis	Hungary	1948-1956	75	68
16	Kunishige Kamamoto	Japan	1964-1977	75	76
17	Bashar Abdullah	Kuwait	1996-2018	75	134
18	Majed Abdullah	Saudi Arabia	1978-1994	72	117
19	Kinnah Phiri	Malawi	1973-1981	71	117
20	Kiatisuk Senamuang	Thailand	1993-2007	71	134
21	Miroslav Klose	Germany	2001-2014	71	137
22	Piyapong Pue-on	Thailand	1981-1997	70	100
23	Abdul Kadir	Indonesia	1967-1979	70	101
24	Stern John	Trinidad and Tobago	1995-2011	70	115