CRISTIANO RONALDO'S NEW RECORD

• Mar 25, 2025
• History Statistics

Cristiano Ronaldo, the new record holder on „full internationals”

Cristiano Ronaldo has played on 20 March (vs Denmark) his 218th match for Portugal. Thus, he surpassed Soh Chin Ann, who has 217 „full internationals” and was the world record holder in that before.
Note that the Portuguese (now at 219) has already been holding the record for the number of matches recognized by FIFA for quite a long time (since his 197th match). All his appearances belong to this category.
Soh Chin Ann has only 195 matches recognized by FIFA. However, he held another 21 in the Asian qualifying for the Olympic tournaments, where during his career all Asian nations were represented by strongest teams (there were no restrictions on the choice of players). The same can be said about 1 of his 3 matches in the final tournament of the 1972 Olympics (vs Morocco).
According to common sense, these 22 matches should also be added to his list of „full internationals”.
In the ranking, players are credited for all matches played for the national team, not necessarily recognized by FIFA, but with the indispensable condition that the strongest teams of nations played on both sides (at least in the absence of restrictions on the admission of players), and the match was played according to normal rules.
The games against nations who are members of continental confederations but not FIFA are also included in the tallies (applied to CONCACAF players).