197th international for Portugal
Cristiano Ronaldo becomes world record holder
03/23/2023, 8:46 p.m
Cristiano Ronaldo is eliminated with Portugal in the quarter-finals of the Qatar World Cup. But it’s not the end of his national team career. In the European Championship qualifier, the 38-year-old runs again – and secures a record.
Portugal’s record national player Cristiano Ronaldo played his 197th international match in the European Championship qualifier and has thus become the world record holder. With his starting XI in the game against Liechtenstein, he overtook the previous record holder Badr al-Mutawa from Kuwait. The 38-year-old now has a record of 197 appearances for the national team of the 2016 European champion.
However, the 37-year-old al-Mutawa with 196 caps is still active. In Europe, Ronaldo has long been at the top in this statistic, followed at a great distance by Spain’s Sergio Ramos (180) and Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon (176). Germany’s record national player Lothar Matthäus has 150 appearances. Ronaldo is also Portugal’s record goalscorer with a total of 118 goals.
More on that shortly.