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The 35-year-old is only the second male player to reach the century for his country after Ali Daei, who scored 109 times for Iran.
Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo has become the second player to reach 100 international goals.
Ronaldo reached the milestone just before halftime in Tuesday’s Nations League game against Sweden, launching a free kick from outside the area to score the game’s first goal.
Ronaldo would soon reach his 101st goal, as the forward added a second with a good shot from outside the area in the 72nd minute.
The 35-year-old is only the second male player to reach 100 goals for his country after Ali Daei, who scored 109 goals for Iran.
Ronaldo’s goal was also the 57th of his career from a direct free kick and the 10th for Portugal.
Ronaldo had to wait 10 months to overcome the last hurdle and reach the milestone, with his 99th international goal in November 2019 against Luxembourg. The forward had scored a hat-trick in the previous match against Lithuania to bring his total to 98.
However, the coronavirus pandemic temporarily halted Ronaldo’s pursuit of 100 goals, and Portugal’s match against Croatia last week was the first since Luxembourg’s.
Ronaldo was forced to stay out of that match due to a toe infection, and Portugal won by a comfortable 4-1 margin even without the Juventus star.
Portugal are looking to defend their Nations League title, having won the inaugural competition last year when they defeated the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.
Ronaldo helped lead his country to the June final, having scored a hat-trick against Switzerland in the semi-final in a 3-1 victory.
At the age of 19, Ronaldo scored his first international goal at Euro 2004. He went on to overtake players like Eusebio and Pauleta to become Portugal’s all-time top scorer and has now more than doubled the previous keeper of the record Pauleta, who scored 47 times for Selecao.
Ronaldo would see his team fall to Greece in the final of Euro 2004, but he has gone on to lead Portugal to great honors in the form of Euro 2016 and the inaugural Nations League title in 2019.
On an individual level, Ronaldo has established himself as one of the all-time greats in a club career that has seen him represent Sporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
In addition to numerous trophies with his club teams, Ronaldo has won the Ballon d’Or five times.
