Real Madrid star Cristinao Ronaldo surpassed Brazil legend Pele's international goal record in Portugal's 5-1 victory over Faroe Islands in the World Cup qualifiers on 31 August.
Pele, who won the three Fifa World Cup with Brazil in 1958, 1962 and 1970 bagged 77 goals for his national side. Ronaldo started Portugal's latest clash with two goals short of equivaling Pele's goalscoring record for the national side.
The former Manchester United star opened the scoring with an early goal in the third minute before he equivaled Pele's record by converting the penalty just before half hour mark. Ronaldo netted another hat-trick for Portugal and with that he became the fifth all-time leading goalscorer in international circuit with 78 goals.
Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo beat the International goal record of Pele and ranked 5thon the list of top International goal scorers. The footballer scored 3 goals in a World Cup qualifier match, against Faroe Islands, September 1.
The former Iranian footballer Ali Daei still holds the first place on the podium with 109 goals. He is followed by Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas (84), former Japanese football player Kunishige Kamamoto (80) and Godfrey Chitalu (79).
Considering Ronaldo's form for both club and country, he will not have any trouble in overtaking the latter three's international record in order to higher up the table.A few of the players who are behind Ronaldo are given below.
David Villa
David Villa made his Spain debut in 2005 and has 59 goals to his name in 97 appearances. Having been an integral part of Spain's dominance between 2008 to 2012, the former Barcelona man was one the key players to lead his national team's attack. During that period, Spain won two European championships (2008 and 2012) and one Fifa World Cup (2010).
Lionel Messi
Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Lionel Messi is standing behind Villa with 58 goals for Argentina. He also represented his country in Copa America and won a gold medal in 2008 Olympic Games. His record of 91 goals for both Barcelona and Argentina in 2012 has seen him become the Guinness World Record holder for most number of goals scored in a calendar year.
Clint Dempsey
United States forward Clint Dempsey share his position on the leader's table with Landon Donovan. He scored 57 goals for his country till now and has an opportunity to overtake his compatriot. Dempsey started his international career in 2002 and is known as the first male American footballer who scored in three World Cups.
Sunil Chhetri
India captain Sunil Chhetri, has scored 54 goals in 94 international appearances. The forward helped the team to win 2007, 2009 and 2012 Nehru Cup. Under his captaincy, in 2008, the team India won AFC Challenge Cup and qualified for the first AFC Asian Cup. All India Football Federation titled him as "AIFF Player of the Year" in 2007, 2011, 2013 and 2014.
