Romelu Lukaku’s total international goals: How Belgium’s record goalscorer compares to Ronaldo, Messi and Neymar

Belgium enters Euro 2024 without much pressure, something that has not happened in a major tournament for at least a decade.

The Red Devils’ “Golden Generation” never managed to achieve a better result than third place at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, despite having a star-studded squad that was expected to deliver major honours.

With players like Eden Hazard and Vincent Kompany now retired, Kevin De Bruyne possibly in decline and Thibaut Courtois out of the team, the weight of expectations is a little lighter on the shoulders of coach Domenico Tedesco and his players. However, they are still expected to qualify from Group E without any problems and, once they reach the round of 16, fans at home can start dreaming of glory again.

Their chances of winning the Euro may largely depend on the performances of striker Romelu Lukaku, who is Belgium’s top scorer by far and finished the 2023/24 Serie A season with three goals in his last four games for Roma. .

But how does Lukaku compare to the greatest male goalscorers in history, including Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?

Romelu Lukaku’s total international goals

Starting June 12, 2024, Lukaku had scored 85 goals in 115 appearances., making him the record scorer for the Belgium men’s national team. He is 52 goals ahead of Eden Hazard in second place.

After his last two goals allowed him to overtake Ferenc Puskas in the all-time international goalscoring rankings, Cristiano Ronaldo is the only European in history to have scored more senior international goals than Lukaku, who scored for the first time for his country against Russia in a friendly match in November 2010.

Lukaku broke Belgium’s goal record by scoring his 31st for his country against Japan in 2017, but FIFA did not recognize the feat at the time, as a 2014 friendly against Luxembourg, in which he scored a hat-trick, It was declared void after Belgium broke the record. rules making too many substitutions.

The former Chelsea and Manchester United forward came third in the 2018 World Cup Golden Boot standings, behind Antoine Griezmann and Harry Kane.

Who has scored the most goals in men’s international football?

Lukaku is one of nine male footballers to have scored more than 80 goals in senior international matches. Given that he is only 31 years old, he has a good chance of reaching 100 goals for his country, something only three other male players can claim to have done.

Lukaku is six goals ahead of the Brazilian record holder Neymarbut he has a long way to go if he wants to catch Lionel Messi and top men’s international goalscorer of all time Cristiano Ronaldo.

Most international goals: men’s top 10 of all time

The following table is updated as of June 12, 2024.

*Denotes active player