Top six players with better international goals-per-game ratio than Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi
Ronaldo is currently at the top for scoring at the international level but not in terms of goals-per-game ratio.
The two greatest international goal-scorers in history are Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. However, other players, including some well-known ones, have a higher goalscoring percentage.
Ronaldo may be the highest goalscorer in international matches but the forward doesn’t have the best goals-per-game ratio. There are other players who boast a better goal-per-game ratio. Ronaldo has scored 133 goals in 216 appearances for Portugal and has 0.62 goals per game. Messi has scored 112 goals in 189 appearances for Argentina and boasts 0.59 goals per game. Yet there are many others with a better record.
6. Davor Suker (0.65 goals-per-game)
Between 1992 and 2002, the renowned Croatian Davor Suker, who won the Golden Boot at the France 98 World Cup and the Champions League with Real Madrid, scored 45 goals in just 68 appearances for his national team.
In the 1990s, Suker’s goal-per-game average of 0.65 felt even more spectacular than it does now when records are being broken everywhere and the schedule is more stacked.
5. Harry Kane (0.67 goals-per-game)
Even though Kane hasn’t won any trophies for his outstanding goal-scoring performance for his club or nation, the actual data speaks for itself.
With just 101 caps, England’s all-time greatest scorer has scored 68 goals. He has a 0.67 goals-per-game ratio. For the Three Lions he recently achieved a century of caps.
4. Romelu Lukaku (0.71 goals-per-game)
Lukaku is unfairly vilified as a result of his propensity to miss significant opportunities in high-profile games and his club career’s numerous wrong-place-wrong-time movements.
He has an even better record than Kane for the national team. The Belgian has scored 85 goals in just 119 games, which means he has 0.71 goals per game. He is only second to Ronaldo in Europe and sixth on the all-time list of international goal scorers. He has enough time at age 31 to surpass even Messi and go up to the second spot.
3. Ali Daei (0.73 goals-per-game)
In the European game, Puskas served as the standard. Ali Daei, the Iranian icon, was the world standard. He was the all-time leading goal scorer in international football for a considerable amount of time. Even though Messi and Ronaldo have lately overtaken him, his goalscoring ratio is still higher. In 148 games for Iran, the former striker for Bayern Munich scored 108 goals.
2. Erling Haaland (0.92 goals-per-game)
With 34 goals from just 37 caps, the Manchester City sensation, who is 24 years old, has become Norway’s all-time leading scorer. That ratio (0.92) is by far the best of any well-known player in the modern era.
Given that Norway have otherwise struggled and hasn’t qualified for any major tournament since Euro 2000, Haaland’s goals-per-game ratio makes it even more impressive.
1. Ferenc Puskas (0.99 goals-per-game)
Even Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland today will find it difficult to match Puskas’ record for Hungary, even though Messi and Ronaldo have long since eclipsed his total.
In 85 games, the strongest Magyars scored an absolutely ridiculous 84 goals. On a global scale, that translates to a goal rate of 0.99 per game. It’s no surprise that his name is still associated with exceptional goal-scoring ability.
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