Cristiano Ronaldo has announced his international retirement and set a very high bar for the top goalscorer of all time.

After 234 caps, Ronaldo confirmed that he was retiring from the Portuguese national team and does so having scored 146 goals for the team in a 23-year stint.

That tally puts him top of the all-time scorers for their national team with the also-retired Lionel Messi next best with 20 fewer goals.

Ali Daei of Iran makes up the top three but are there any players who could beat Ronaldo’s record?

Romelu Lukaku

The current highest-ranked active player is Lukaku who has scored 94 goals for Belgium.

His age, however, makes it very difficult for him to reach Ronaldo’s tally. Lukaku is 33 now and scores at a rate of 0.7 per match, that means he needs another 76 matches to score 147 goals.

He plays between 5-10 international games per year and so would need to play for another seven years or so which would take him to the age Ronaldo is now.

It’s not impossible but is unlikely you would figure.

Harry Kane

If you’re looking for a 33-year-old who could break the record then ignore Lukaku and instead focus on Kane.

The reason why Kane is a more tempting bet is he is in ridiculous goal scoring form, the kind of form that wins you the Ballon d’Or.

Kane’s got 91 in 125 England games, meaning he’s at 0.73 per match, his numbers though have really ramped up in the last five seasons.

He got 16 in 2021, including four in the delayed Euro 2020, and 13 in 2026 with more games yet to come.

If he continues at the rate of his career so far, he would need 77 more matches but he has a one-in-one record for 2026. Continue at that pace and he would reach the tally a lot quicker.

Kylian Mbappe

If you were a betting man, you would probably put your money on Mbappe to be the one to reach it.

He’s got a lot of good things going for him. First of all, he’s the main goalscoring output for a nation that regularly reaches major tournament finals. Secondly, he’s incredibly good in those tournaments and has won the Golden Boot in the last two World Cups. Thirdly, he’s only 27.

Mbappe’s goal-scoring rate overall is a little lower than Kane or Lukaku’s but he is making up for any lost time. The Real Madrid forward has got 12 in 13 2026 games. In 2022 and 2023, he broke double digits and since moving centrally, he has only scored more for his club side.

Mbappe has got 67 goals from his 107 games, putting him 78 behind Ronaldo but you would fancy him to get close at the least by the time his career is over.

Erling Haaland

Haaland’s goalscoring ratio makes him a strong contender.

The Norwegian machine has a better-than-a-goal-a-game ratio for his country and, while meaning no disrespect to Norway, he is doing it in not one of the elite nations.

Haaland has got 65 in 59 including five in seven at the most recent World Cup and has age on his side as well with him being 26.

Where Haaland may fall down is that he does not play for one of the top nations and so reaching tournaments and then going deep in them is not a given.

The 2026 World Cup was the first time Norway have appeared in it in 28 years and while you would say they are one of the 48 best teams in the world right now, that could fluctuate more than other nations like France, Germany and Spain.

Lamine Yamal

He’s got a long way to go, but he certainly has the time to get there.

Yamal has 11 goals for Spain so far, putting him a whopping 135 goals behind Ronaldo but Yamal is only 19, meaning he has another 22 years in the game if he were to play to the age of Ronaldo.

Although one of the most impressive attributes about both Ronaldo and Messi is their longevity. Yamal would not be the first young superstar to be off the top perch by the time he was 30.

One other negative for Yamal is he is not an out-and-out goalscorer in the same way Ronaldo in particular was. Yamal got just one goal and four assists in Euro 2024 while he failed to really shine in the 2026 World Cup despite Spain winning it.

If he begins to score more goals, especially for the national team, and if he stays healthy, he could do it but those are two big ifs.