RECORD FOR CRISTIANO RONALDO
CR7’s another record: most years with scoring for NT
Cristiano Ronaldo recently took possession of another world goal-scoring record, on the number of calendar years with scoring goals for a national team.
He failed to find the net in Euro 2024 but scored a brace in a friendly shortly before the tournament. This is his 21st year in which he scored goals for Portugal (consecutively from 2004 to 2024).
The previous record (19 years, also consecutively) belonged to Robbie Keane (Republic of Ireland). In 2024, Lionel Messi also scored for Argentina in his 19th year.
Before Keane, the record holder was Jari Litmanen (18 years).
Here we publish for the first time the corresponding all-time ranking with details; the active players are highlighted in bold.
| MOST YEARS | SCORING FOR | NATIONAL | TEAM | |
| Player | Country | Years | Total | |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 2004-24 | 21 |
| 2 | Robbie Keane | Republic of Ireland | 1998-16 | 19 |
| 3 | Lionel Messi | Argentina | 2006-24 | 19 |
| 4 | Jari Litmanen | Finland | 1991-98, 00-06, 08-10 | 18 |
| 5 | Goran Pandev | North Macedonia | 2002-13, 16-21 | 18 |
| 6 | Sunil Chhetri | India | 2005, 07-19, 21-24 | 18 |
| 7 | Edin Džeko | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 2007-23 | 17 |
| 8 | Robert Lewandowski | Poland | 2008-24 | 17 |
| 9 | Andriy Shevchenko | Ukraine | 1996-01, 03-12 | 16 |
| 10 | Alexis Sánchez | Chile | 2007-11, 13-23 | 16 |
| 11 | Luis Suárez | Uruguay | 2007-14, 16-22, 24 | 16 |
| 12 | Gheorghe Hagi | Romania | 1984-88, 90-99 | 15 |
| 13 | Kalusha Bwalya | Zambia | 1984-89, 91-96, 98, 00, 04 | 15 |
| 14 | Tico-Tico | Mozambique | 1992-00, 03-04, 06-09 | 15 |
| 15 | Hakan Şükür | Turkey | 1992-04, 06-07 | 15 |
| 16 | Carlos Ruíz | Guatemala | 1999-08, 11-12, 14-16 | 15 |
| 17 | Michael Mifsud | Malta | 2001-04, 06-13, 15, 18, 20 | 15 |
| 18 | Andriy Yarmolenko | Ukraine | 2009-23 | 15 |