Top 10 active goalscorers in international football

#6 Robert Lewandowski (Poland) – 61 goals

Another man who needs no introduction, Lewandowski has been steadily chipping away at this list as his goalscoring output for Poland has skyrocketed after joining Bayern Munich, his average going up from a meager 0.28 until 2014 to a mammoth 0.84 since then.

So peerless has been his exploits that he also finished as the top-scorer during the Euro 2016 qualifying with 13 goals, and then again in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in the European zone after hitting another 16.

During that period, he also scored five hat-tricks, before adding another one in the Euro 2021 qualifiers. But despite such a prolific record, the jury is still out on him as Lewandowski has failed to replicate such form in international competitions.

He scored just once each in Euro cup’s 2012 and 2016 editions and then fired a blank in the Russian showpiece two years ago.

#5 Neymar (Brazil) – 61 goals

Neymar made his Brazil debut at the age of 18 and instantly laid down a marker. He scored against the USA in his first appearance for the Canaries and then added five more strikes within the next 12 months. The PSG star hasn’t looked back ever since.

Now at 61, he’s closing in on Pele’s record of 77 goals for the national team, but there’s one catch, however. A total of 42 of his strikes have come in inconsequential friendlies compared to just 13 in international competitions.

Much like Lewandowski, he too has been criticized for coming a cropper when it really mattered. During the 2018 World Cup, in particular, Neymar was more in the news for his on-field theatrics and altercations with players from other teams than his performances.

His biggest accomplishment so far internationally remains winning the gold medal with Brazil at the Rio Olympics in 2016, scoring in all the knock-out ties, including the finals against Germany, where he also scored the winning spot-kick in the shootout.

#4 Ali Mabkhout (UAE) – 63 goals

A prominent one-club man in Asia, Mabkhout is the most efficient scorer on this list, averaging 0.76 goals-per-match for the UAE, as he’s struck 63 times for the Gulf nation in only 80 games!

He started his international football career in the most emphatic fashion imaginable, netting four times against Bahrain to cap off a memorable debut, and has since bagged five more hat-tricks in various formats.

Last year, he registered some of the highest figures for international football in a calendar year with 16 goals, during which he became the all-time leading scorer for the Whites and also won the Golden Boot at the 2019 Arabian Gulf Cup.