Ronaldo Breaks Long-Standing Puskas Record to Become Europe's All-Time Top International Scorer

Cristiano Ronaldo is now the all-time leading European goalscorer in international football after scoring his 85th goal for Portugal in his country's 1-0 win over Morocco at the World Cup, breaking Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskas' long-standing record.

Puskas, who became a Real Madrid icon later in his lengthy career, scored 84 goals in 85 games for Hungary between 1945 and 1956. Ronaldo matched that tally when he netted a hat-trick in Portugal's World Cup opener against Spain last week and has now gone one better.

The irrepressible 33-year-old needed just four minutes to break the deadlock against the north Africans and, despite Portugal largely being second best, it proved to be the winner.

In the space of the last 10 months alone Ronaldo has scored 10 international goals.

During that time, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has surpassed Pele's Brazil tally of 77. He has also gone ahead of Iraqi marksman Hussein Saeed (78), Zambian legend Godfrey Chitalu (79) and Japanese hero Kunishige Kamamoto (80) as he climbed the global ranks.

Puskas was the only European still ahead of him, but Ronaldo has reeled the Galloping Major in.

Now, Iran legend Ali Daei (109) is the sole player in the history of international football to have scored more for his country than Ronaldo.

Dean Mouhtaropoulos/GettyImages

Ronaldo is 24 behind, but given his drive and determination to be the best, combined with his incredible fitness despite his age, you wouldn't bet against him making it his mission to chase that record down and further carve his name into the history books.