Stats: Top 10 currently active goalscorers in international football

Robbie Keane leads the list of currently active goalscorers

With the club game taking prominence over international football in recent years, some of the achievements of lesser known players at International level is undermined. Other players have always performed better for their respective nations than their clubs.

In the list of top 10 active international goalscorers there are the usual suspects like Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo, Robin Van Persie and Dimitar Berbatov but some lesser known players also come into the list like Sunil Chhetri of Indian national team and Younis Mahmoud, who is the current captain of the Iraqi National team and an integral part of their historic Asia cup triumph in 2007.

The top 10 currently active international goalscorers

Ireland captain Robbie Keane leads the list in terms of goals scored by active players for their country with an impressive 67 goals in 141 appearances for the Green boys. He holds an incredible record for having scored in 19 consecutive years for the national team, a feat that is in itself a massive display of his importance to the squad. He is 9 goals ahead of lesser known Guatemalan player Carlos Ruiz who is second on the list and has scored 58 goals in just 115 appearances for his country

In third comes maverick Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has scored 56 goals in just 105 appearances for his country. Zlatan is one of the few candidates who could yet surpass Robbie Keane in terms of goals scored for the country.

Next in the list is current world player of the year Cristiano Ronaldo who has always been accused of not performing at the same level for the country as for his club sides. The Portuguese recently overtook another legend Eusebio. He has scored 55 goals in 120 appearances for his country and is also the leading goalscorers in UEFA competitions.

Fifth on the list is current Iraqi captain Younis Mahmoud who has scored 54 goals in 141 appearances for his nation.

Then comes former Manchester United striker Robin Van Persie – who has scored 49 goals in 98 appearances - and their current captain Wayne Rooney – who is now the first ever Englishman to score 50 goals breaking Sir Bobby Charlton's record of 49.

Another former Red Devil Dimitar Berbatov follows with 48 goals scored in 79 games. USMNT striker Clint Dempsey and Asamoah Gyan have both scored the same number of goals as the Bulgarian but are lower down the list as they took 119 and 90 games respectively to score their goals.

Lionel Messi also has scored 48 goals for Argentina which puts him in the top 10 ahead of Dempsey. Following him with 47 goals in 79 appearances is Indian striker Sunil Chhetri. He’s among the best footballing talents the country has seen and has India’s many hopes are riding on his shoulders, but just narrowly misses out on the top 10.

The likes of Luis Suarez and Edin Dzeko miss out on the list as they currently stand on 43 goals for their countries but it’s not something too many people would bet against them achieving soon.

No.	Name	Country	Appearances	Goals
1	Robbie Keane	Rep. of Ireland	141	67
2	Carlos Ruiz	Guatemala	115	58
3	Zlatan Ibrahimovic	Sweden	105	56
4	Cristiano Ronaldo	Portugal	120	55
5	Younis Mahmoud	Iraq	141	54
6	Wayne Rooney	England	107	50
7	Robin Van Persie	Netherlands	98	49
8	Dimitar Berbatov	Bulgaria	79	48
9	Asamoah Gyan	Ghana	90	48
10	Lionel Messi	Argentina	105	49
11	Clint Dempsey	USA	119	48

Stats updated as of 9^th September 2015