Players with a century of goals in more than one country

In more than 120 years of league soccer there are lots of excellent forwards who have scored more than one hundred first level league goals in their career. Generally they did so in their own country, sometimes in a foreign country. Only in seventeen known cases a player scored one hundred league goals in more than one country. This story reveals who those seventeen soccer players are. I’ve divided them into different segments, in ascending order.

100 + 100

Mario Kempes

John Eriksen

First let’s take a look at nine players who scored one hundred league goals in two countries, but didn’t reach the one hundred fifty mark. Eight of these players scored a century of goals in their home country, Denmarks John Eriksen (Roda JC, Feyenoord, Servette, Luzern) is the only one to score 100+ league goals in two foreign countries, the Netherlands and Switserland. In his own country Denmark Eriksen scored another 44 league goals for Odense BK, and he also played one season in the French second division (Mulhouse), scoring 27 goals. 

A few of these mentioned players also managed to score league goals in yet another country:

- Luc Nilis scored one league goal in England (Aston Villa);

- Mario Kempes scored another 48 league goals in Austria, 5 in Chile’s second division and 10 first level goals in Indonesia (as player/coach, already 41 years old);

- Hector Yazalde scored another 23 league goals for Olympique Marseille in France. 

*League 1 is the league in which the player has scored most goals, not necessarily the league in which he started his career. 

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals
John Bosman	NETH	Netherlands	146	Belgium	104
Luc Nilis	BEL	Belgium	143	Netherlands	110
John Hansen	DEN	Italy	139	Denmark	113
Ove Kindvall	SWE	Netherlands	129	Sweden	103
Mario Kempes	ARG	Spain	126	Argentina	111
Hector Yazalde	ARG	Argentina	125	Portugal	104
Kenny Dalglish	SCO	England	118	Scotland	112
John Eriksen	DEN	Switserland	112	Netherlands	102
Vahid Halilhodzic	YUG	Yugoslavia	104	France	101

150 + 100

Only one player collected one hundred league goals in one country, and 150 (or more) in another. Stephane Chapuisat scored 40 league goals in Switserland, before moving to Gemany (Bayer Uerdingen 4 goals, Borussia Dortmund 102 goals). Then he returned home to Switserland and scored another 114 league goals for Grasshoppers Zürich, Young Boys and Lausanne Sports.

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals
Stephane Chapuisat	SWI	Switserland	154	Germany	106

200 + 100

Hugo Sanchez

Four different players managed to score two hundred goals in one league, and one hundred in another. These are all well-known strikers with big reputations. Mexican Hugo Sanchez scored another 28 league goals in the United States, and six in Austria. Three of these players scored their two hundred league goals in a foreign country, Raymond Braine being the only one who was more successful at home (206) than abroad (Czechoslovakia, 120).

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals
Hugo Sanchez	MEX	Spain	234	Mexico	114
Gunnar Nordahl	SWE	Italy	225	Sweden	149
Osvaldo Castro	CHIL	Mexico	210	Chile	136
Raymond Braine	BEL	Belgium	206	Czechoslovakia	120

200 + 150

Argentina is the only country with three players in this list. Kempes and Yazalde are already mentioned, Carlos Bianchi did even better. Bianchi was nearly unstoppable as a striker and he scored 205 league goals in Argentina, all of them for his club Velez Sarsfield. Inbetween he played seven years in France, collecting another 179 league goals. Bianchi ended his career in the French second division, scoring another 8 goals for Stade Reims. As we all,know, Bianchi is also one the most succesful coaches of all time.

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals
Carlos Bianchi	ARG	Argentina	205	France	179

350 + 150

Ferenc Puskas is the number three goal scorer of all time, when it comes down to league goals. In this story, he is my number two. First Puskas banged in the goals in his native Hungary (more than 350!). After the Russian invasion in 1956 he and some team mates fled the country, at first to Switserland. He was banned by the Hungarian FA until October 1958. After that, he started played for Real Madrid. Thirty-one years old already, Puskas still managed to score 156 league goals until his retirement in 1966.

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals
Ferenc Puskas	HUN	Hungary	357	Spain	156

100 + 100 + 100

My number one can’t keep up with the 513 league goals that Puskas scored. But Isidro Langara is the only soccer player ever (at least until now) who scored more than one hundred league goals in three different countries.  He started with 80 goals at top level with Real Oviedo (and another 61 in the second division), before the Spanish Civil War broke out. Langara then played with a Spanish team (Euskadi) in the Mexican league for one year (17 goals) and was picked up by Argentinians San Lorenzo. After little more than three seasons there (110 league goals), Langara got back to Mexico and scored 106 goals in the league with Espana. He returned  home to Spain and Oviedo score another 25 goals in the Spanish competition. That makes Langara king of this story.

Player	Nat.	League 1	Goals	League 2	Goals	League 3	Goals
Isidro Langara	ESP	Mexico	123	Argentina	110	Spain	106

Old guns with hard to break national records

Nowadays nearly every country plays more international soccer matches than, let’s say, thirty years ago. Perhaps more than twice as much. So it would be normal if the top goal scorer of each country would be a still active, or a recently retired player. But that’s not always the case. Six European soccer nations have a number one goal scorer, that played his last soccer match more than fifty years ago.  Here they are, listed from the old to the ancient, with a special Scandinavian flavor.

6  Ferenc Puskas (Hungary), 84 international goals

Ferenc Puskas (1927-2006) still occupies second place (behind Iranian Ali Daei  with 107 goals for his country), in the alltime goal scorers list for international matches. He was a goalscoring machine unlike any other, even though he was not a centre forward. The Galloping Major from the Mighty Magyars of the fourties and fifties put himself on the scoring sheet in 52 of his 85 matches for Hungary, modestly scoring just one or two goals most of the time. 

Best performances	Opponent(s)
Four goals	Albania (12-0, 1950)
Three goals	Luxembourg (7-2, 1946), Rumania (5-1, 1948), Austria (6-1, 1949), Austria (4-3, 1950)

Puskas scored his last international goal on October 14, 1956

Biggest thread in the near future: nobody, never. How could anyone? The closests nowadays would be Balázs Dzsudzsák. He  is 26 years old and has scored twelve goals. 73 to go…

5  Stjepan Bobek (Yugoslavia/Serbia), 38 international goals

From 1948 until 1962, Yugoslavian soccer was thriving. They won silver at the Olympics in 1948, 1952 and 1956, and finally won gold in 1960. They performed well at the World Cups and reached the final of the first European Championship. So it is no surprise that Yugoslavia’s/Serbian alltime top goal scorer is from this period, Stjepan Bobek (1923-2010). The Partizan Belgrade-forward played 63 international matches between 1946 and 1956, scoring a total of 38 goals, two more than the star from the thirties, Blagoje Marjanovic.

Best performances	Opponents
Three goals	Austria (4-2, 1952), Turkey (5-1, 1954)

Bobek scored his last international goal on October 17, 1954

Biggest thread in the near future: After Bobek, Milan Galic (37 goals between 1959 and 1965) and Savo Milosevic (37 goals between 1994 and 2006) came very close. At the moment it doesn’t seem likely that, for instance Zoran Tosic (26 years and 8 goals), can beat Bobek’s record.

4  Bernard Voorhoof (Belgium), 30 international goals

Voorhoof in his Lierse SK-outfit

Between the two World Wars, Belgium perhaps had it’s best moments. Up until Brazil 2014, of course. They took the Olympic title in 1920 and took part in all three World Cups. Bernard Voorhoof (1910-1974) was the leading goal scorer for Belgium in the thirties. His 30 goals seems in line with other performances in this list, but Voorhoof did fail to score a single hattrick during his international career.

Best performances	Opponents
Two goals	Netherlands (4-2, 1933), Italy (2-3, 1933), Switserland (3-3, 1933), Germany (2-5, 1934), Switserland (3-0, 1938)

Voorhoof scored his last international goal on March 17, 1940

Biggest thread in the near future: Paul van Himst (1960-1972) also got 30 goals, after that the present national coach Marc Wilmots came close with 28. For the future, who knows what magic Kevin De Bruyne (21 years old, 3 goals), Eden Hazard (22 years, 5 goals), Christian Benteke (22 years, 6 goals) or Romulu Lukaku (20 years, 2 goals) can bring about?

3  Jørgen Juve (Norway), 30 international goals

Jørgen Juve, standing first from the right,
with Norway at the Olympic games 1936 

Until the thirties, Norway had little to show for in international soccer. Heavy defeats (see ‘Opponents’ of the number one and two of this list below) were quite common. But then it slowly got better. Norway won the 1932 Scandinavian championship and qualified for the 1938 World Cup. Two years before, they managed to beat Germany and even clinched the bronze medal. Striker Jørgen Juve (1906-1983) was instrumental in most of these major and minor triumphs, scoring 30 times in 42 matches. The Norwegian FA holds on to 33 goals in 45 matches, but those three extra games were against the amateur sides of Hungary (twice) and Austria. So, internationally they don’t count. Still, 30 goals gives Juve a comfortable lead at the top of the list. Amazingly, he played about half of his international matches as a defender. For instance, Juve didn’t score a single goal in his last eightteen games for Norway, as he was in charge of Norway's defense instead.

Best performances	Opponent
Three goals	Netherlands (4-4, 1929), Finland (4-0, 1929), Finland (6-2, 1930), Sweden (3-6, 1930) and Finland (5-1, 1933)

Juve scored his last international goal on November 5, 1933

Biggest thread in the near future: There seems not really anyone in sight. John Carew came somewhat close, with 24 goals. But after him, you could hardly think that Tarik Elyounoussi (25 years, 7 goals) would add 24 or more goals to his total.

2  Sven Rydell (Sweden), 49 international goals

During the twenties (and early thirties), Sweden was doing alright for themselves. They didn't win a lot of trophies, but won far more matches than they lost. And scored lots of goals, with skilled forwards like Per Kaufeldt, Albin Dahl, Knut Kroon and Tore Keller, with Sven Rydell (1905-1975) probably the best of them all. His record shows for itself, 49 goals in 43 matches. Even AC Milan legend Gunnar Nordahl managed only 42 (albeit in just 33 matches). And what would have happened if Rydell hadn’t been forced to quit the game, at the age of 28?

Best performances	Opponents
Four goals	Egypt (5-0, 1924), Norway (7-3, 1925)
Three goals	Poland (5-1, 1924), Belgium (8-1, 1924), Norway (6-1, 1924), Latvia (12-0, 1927), Norway (5-3, 1927), Netherlands (6-2, 1929) and Finland (7-1, 1932)

Rydell scored his last international goal on May 16, 1932

Biggest thread in the near future: There is one serious thread: Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In fact, everybody expects him to take the Swedish record to 50 goals and beyond. In 2012 Ibrahimovic scored eleven international goals, this year (as of September 7) he got another five and at 44, he is just five goals behind Rydell.

1  Poul ‘Tist’ Nielsen (Denmark), 52 international goals

On the continent, Denmark probably was the best soccer nation of all up to 1920. Of course, to prove it,  they won two silver medals at the Olympic Games in 1908 and 1912. While already having such great strikers as Sophus Nielsen and Anton Olsen, Poul ‘Tist’ (1891-1962) Nielsen was even more prolific. When he made his debut for Denmark in 1910, he was the youngest ever. And after two matches to settle in, he started scoring. In 1913 he was the world’s leading international goal scorer, with eleven goals. Two years later he won again, this time with 5 goals. In 1914 (4 goals), 1916 (6), 1917 (5) and 1919 (7) he came second.

 

Best performances	Opponent
Six goals*	Sweden (10-0, 1913)
Five goals*	Norway (12-0, 1917)
Four goals*	Germany (4-1, 1913), Norway (8-0, 1916)
Three goals	Netherlands (4-3, 1914), Norway (8-1, 1915), Norway (5-1, 1919), Norway (3-1, 1921)

*Odd statistic: every time Nielsen scored four, five or six times, it was during the month of October.

Poul Tist Nielsen scored his last international goal on September 27, 1925

Biggest thread in the near future: Jon Dahl Tomasson equaled Nielsen’s record, but failed to score another one. From todays squad, Niklas Bendtner (22 goals) is still only 25 years old, but adding another 31 seems way too much to ask for.

Notes on this story:

·        * Antonin Puc is the all-time top scorer of Czechoslovakia with 34 goals until 1938. I didn't consider him, because the Football Association of the Czech Republic has integrated the statistics from Czechoslovakia into their history since 1992. And as Jan Koller has scored 55 international goals (and Milan Baros 41), Puc isn’t the record holder.

·       * The Luxembourg FA has Léon Mart (active for Luxembourg from 1939 until 1945) as their record goal scorer. But Mart scored eleven of his sixteen goals against B-teams, and those matches are not made official by FIFA/UEFA.

·       *  Vivian Woodward (England) has scored a total of 73 matches against countries who considered each match as a full international. Only the English FA does not, as he 30 matches (44 goals) for the English amateur team. With only 29 goals for the official professional English team, Bobby Charlton (49 goals) and seven others performed better.