Cristiano Ronaldo reached 197 caps yesterday with the Portugal team, and celebrated by scoring the last two goals that helped Roberto Martínez’s team to achieve a 4-0 victory in the friendly against Liechtenstein. In yesterday’s match, the Portuguese scored another record for him by becoming the male player with the most caps, surpassing the 196 for Kuwaiti Bader Al-Mutawa.
However, this does not make him the footballer with the most international caps in history, as there are 28 players who have already achieved it before, and many of them far exceed the number reached by the Portuguese star.
The first on the list is Kristine Lilly, who has accumulated 354 games with the United States team. In December 2008 she returned to the national team after giving birth to her daughter, and she played her last international match on November 5, 2010.
They are closely followed by Christine Sinclair (322) —still active—, Carli Lloyd (316) —the first player to score three goals in a World Cup final— and Christie Pearce (311). All of them accumulate more than 300 caps with their respective teams.
Although far from reaching the numbers that these players who complete the top 4 have, names such as Caroline Seger (232), Sophie Schmidt (220), Becky Sauerbrunn (210) or Sherida Spitse (203) who are still active and they will be able to continue accumulating internationalities.
In the select top 10 of players with the most caps, there are also true legends of women’s football such as Miraildes Maciel Mota, better known as Formiga (234), and Abby Wambach (255). The Brazilian is the soccer player who has played the most World Cups (7) in the history of both male and female soccer. For her part, the American is the top scorer for her team, including the men’s and women’s sections, with 184 goals.
Players like Alex Morgan (198) have already surpassed Cristiano Ronaldo, and Megan Rapinoe (196) is close to doing so. In the European case, the German Birgit Prinz stands out, who in addition to being the second footballer on the continent with the most caps (214), is the top scorer (128).
Spain, for its part, only has one representative on the list of soccer players with the most international caps. This is Alexia Putellas, who has worn the shirt of the Spanish team 100 times.
