As Ronaldo Is 2 Goals Away From Record, Here Is How He Stands Against International Football Greats

Cristiano Ronaldo netted his career's 55th hat-trick in Portugal's 6-0 thumping of Lithuania at the Euro Qualifier match on Friday.

Ronaldo was not expected to start for Portugal after he was substituted in Juventus' last two fixtures. The Italian club has been claiming that the Portuguese skipper is not fully fit but Ronaldo showed no such signs as he struck his ninth hat-trick for his country and also played for a good 83 minutes.

When Fernando Santos was asked about Ronaldo's fitness in a post-match interview, the Portugal coach replied, "He's fine. I had no doubt about that, as I said before the match. Other people did, but I didn't have any doubts."

Ronaldo, who led Portugal to a victory at Euro 2016, now has scored 98 international goals and is just two goals away from becoming just the second man to touch a century in national colors.

Ali Daei, who played for Iran from 1993 until his retirement in 2007, plundered an astonishing 109 goals and no footballer to date has managed to even get closer to that world record.

Out of Ronaldo's nine hat-tricks, seven have come in the last four years. This year, Ronaldo has already scored 13 times in seven caps for Portugal and has matched his feat of most goals in a calendar year, which he had clinched in 2016.

His goal-scoring rout has put him just 11 away from Daei's unmatched record on the international platform.

Even though Lionel Messi has an argument saying Argentina does not have the comfort of playing against lower-ranked sides such as Lithuania, Luxembourg, Andorra, and the Faroe Islands, it should still be noted that even Europe's footballing greats have not replicated Ronaldo's feats.

Messi, who has failed to win a single international tournament for Argentina, has scored only 68 goals in his national colors. While legendary Pele had 77 goals for Brazil, Miroslav Klose scored as many as 71 for Germany.

David Villa, who was a key member of Spain's dominance between 2008 and 2012, an era in which they won two European Championships and one World Cup, had managed just 59 goals. He announced retirement earlier this week at the end of a decorated career but even he failed to come close to Ronaldo's records.