7 great players that Cristiano Ronaldo has outscored in international football since turning 35

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored more international goals since turning 35 than some of the greatest players in football history managed in their entire careers.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner notched his 100th goal for Portugal back in September 2020. He’s now up to 135 in total, making it 36 goals since his 35th birthday alone.

We’ve identified seven great footballers that Ronaldo has outscored on the international stage since turning 35.

Diego Maradona

Here’s the big one.

El Diego is rightly regarded as one of the greatest footballers in history, as well as a bonafide deity in his home country of Argentina, with 34 international goals to his name.

It’s a statement of quite how dramatically football has changed – from the schedule, opponents, state of pitches, media ecosystem and a thousand other factors – that Ronaldo has notched just over a hundred more international goals in his career.

Crucially, Ronny doesn’t have a World Cup to his name. Or a myth-making summer quite like Mexico ’86 – arguably as good as any footballer has ever been.

Vinicius Junior

It’s not all that fair to compare like for like here, granted. The Real Madrid superstar likely has at least another decade at the top level ahead of him.

There are also mitigating factors.

For one, South America doesn’t have an equivalent of Luxembourg or Liechtenstein for star players to fill their boots against – look at Erling Haaland scoring 38 goals in 39 games for Norway while still waiting to qualify for a major tournament.

Secondly, Vinicius’ rise has coincided with the most dysfunctional Brazil side in a generation.

But the numbers are stark. Vini made his international debut back in September 2019 and has scored just five goals in 36 appearances. Ronaldo turned 35 six months later and has scored 36 goals – over seven times as many – in 46 outings for Portugal.

Vinicius has made a habit in recent years of making a Ronaldo-esque impact on the big Champions League nights for Los Blancos. But he has some way to go if he’s to emulate Madrid’s all-time top goalscorer on the international stage.

READ: 5 players we can’t believe have scored more international goals than Vinicius Junior

Andy Cole

Cole’s club CV stands up against pretty much any other attacker’s in recent English football history – he notched the joint-most goals and assists in a Premier League season (47 for Newcastle in 1993-94), played a starring role in Manchester United’s historic 1998-99 treble and only Alan Shearer has scored more non-penalty goals in the Premier League.

Yet not only has Ronaldo scored more international goals since turning 35 than Cole, but he’s scored more international goals since turning 39.

In fact, Ronaldo scored more goals in his last outing for Portugal – two in a 5-1 mauling of Poland – than Cole did in his entire England career.

Cole made just 15 appearances for the Three Lions and only scored just once. The discrepancy between the striker’s club and international records is just one of those wild footballing quirks.

Alan Shearer

The man who tended to be ahead of Cole in the England pecking order, Shearer scored a much more respectable 30 goals for the Three Lions – including five to claim the Golden Boot at Euro 96.

The Premier League record-breaker retired from international duty when he was just 30 years old back in 2000. He’s always stressed that decision was imperative for prolonging his club career, in which he went on to become Newcastle’s all-time top goalscorer.

READ NEXT: The 10 players with the most goals and assists in Europe’s major leagues in the 21st century

TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every manager that Cristiano Ronaldo has played under?

Gigi Riva

Surprisingly enough, Italy – four-time World Cup winners and six-time World Cup finalists – have no players with more than 35 international goals. Riva holds the distinction of being their all-time top goalscorer.

While we’re at it… Roberto Baggio, Alessandro Del Piero, Filippo Inzaghi and Christian Vieri. All have scored fewer goals for the Azzurri than Ronaldo has scored for Portugal in his twilight years alone. Mad.

Gheorghe Hagi

The former Real Madrid and Barcelona forward represented Romania from 1983 until 2000. He made 124 appearances and scored 35 goals.

Hagi was named Romanian Footballer of the Year on no fewer than seven occasions and in 1999 was placed 25th in the greatest footballers of the 20th century by World Soccer Magazine.

As with Maradona and Riva, a very different time.

Luton Shelton

“Luton Shelton… Really? A great player?” we hear you ask.

Fair question. You might remember him doing next to nothing at Sheffield United, if you remember him at all.

We’ve included Shelton here to illustrate a wider point. We might just as well have gone with Benni McCarthy, Nahki Wells, Shaun Goater, Lyle Taylor or any number of players that hold the distinction of being the all-time top goalscorer for relatively obscure footballing nations.

Shelton is Jamaica’s all-time top goalscorer with 34 goals. Two fewer than Ronaldo has scored for Portugal since turning 35. And that’s at the respectable end of the scale; of the 213 FIFA-recognised national teams, 120 have an all-time top goalscorer with fewer than 36 goals.

That means that Ronaldo, after the age that most forwards hang up their boots, has outscored 57% of the male all-time top scorers for nations around the world. Silly numbers.