Three active players of the Argentine National Team are in the top 10 of all-time scorers. The presence of
Lionel Messi
in first place, with
106 goals
, is one of the best known data for Argentine and world soccer fans. In the last friendly,
Ángel Di María
(he reached 29 goals) and
Lautaro Martínez
(22) scored. The 'Toro' reached René Pontoni, star of the 40s, in the top 10. The list, which includes more than 120 years of history of the Argentine national team, has secrets and curiosities.
The first footballer who managed to pass the 20-goal barrier was
Herminio Masantonio
, an extraordinary scorer for Huracán, who wore the albiceleste between 1935 and 1942. He scored 21 goals in 19 games, seven of them in the 1942 Copa América, his last performance. . Three years later, he was surpassed by
René Pontoni
, who debuted in the National Team that year. He played until 1947 and scored 22 goals in 20 games. A symbol of the time for the players, few games and many goals.
René Pontoni, former Newell's and San Lorenzo player, shone in the 1940s.
In the mid-50s, the team was fed by another great player,
José Francisco Sanfilippo
, who scored 21 goals in 28 games. But it was
Luis Artime
who rose to first place in the 60s, also with a high goal average: 24 goals in 25 games. He had that privileged place for two decades, until
Diego Armando Maradona
reached him with his two goals against Belgium in the semifinal of the World Cup in Mexico, and surpassed him in the first subsequent friendly, against Italy in Zurich.
Luis Artime, with the River shirt.
Diego totaled 32 official goals in 87 games. Some statistics count him with 34 goals in 91 games, but here the first clarification is worth it. Until the end of the 90s, every match of the Argentine national team was taken as official, without taking into account the parameters stipulated by FIFA. Then, Diego added a goal against the Rest of the World in 1979, by the way, a great goal; and another against an Irish B team (he also played two more games against the Irish team).
Clarín's coverage in April 1996, when Batistuta caught up with Maradona. Then there was revisionism about the absolute matches between major teams.
Even on April 24, 1996, when Argentina beat Bolivia 3-1 in the Qualifiers for the 98 World Cup in France with a goal from
Gabriel Omar Batistuta
, the media, including
Clarín
, highlighted that Bati had reached Diego at most gunner with 34 goals. Revisionism came later. Until then, two goals were added to the Santa Fe striker that he scored against the Slovak Sub 23 on the opening day of the Centenario stadium in Quilmes. For FIFA, that match is not between two senior teams. It was later corrected. Likewise, that day Bati reached 32 and equaled Diego who was actually 32. Batistuta scored 54 goals until 2002.
Then Hernán Crespo
got on the podium
, who remained second for a time behind Bati, with 35 goals in 63 games between 1995 and 2007. The last goal was scored on July 2, 2007, in the Copa América in Venezuela, to Colombia from a penalty, just before the muscle injury that left him out of the tournament and the National Team forever.
02.07.2007 - Copa América: 4-2 vs Colombia (Riquelme 2/Crespo/Diego Milito) Last game of Hernán Crespo http://t.co/BHyTK9oiRE
— historiaseleccion (@histseleccion) July 2, 2013
Until the arrival of Lionel Messi who broke all records. He debuted in August 2005 against Hungary and scored his first goal in March 2006 against Croatia. In February 2013 against Venezuela (3-0), he caught up with Maradona. On June 14, 2013 he scored a hat-trick against Venezuela and tied Crespo. And in the Copa América Centenario, against Venezuela (4-1) he equaled Bati and against the United States he surpassed him forever.
The Argentine captain has 106 goals in 180 games. In March of last year, in the friendly against Curacao in Santiago del Estero (7-0) he scored three, one of them a centenary. In the future will there be any Argentine player to break this Rosario record? It seems difficult.
The podium of top scorers was completed by
Sergio Kun Agüero
, who scored 42 goals between 2006 and 2021. Now the historical table has regained relevance due to the position of Di María and Lautaro. Fideo has 29 goals, although in some portals (which many media journalists feed on today) they give him 30 goals. What is the difference?
On September 7, 2012, Argentina defeated Paraguay 3-1 in Córdoba. Two minutes later, after a great team play,
Di María
hit him from outside the area, Lavezzi crouched down but the ball hit him on the back, he deviated the trajectory a little and became 1-0 for Argentina. It is not a goal against a player's shot, as usually happens. In this case, the goal was scored by the last player on the team who scored, that is, Lavezzi. The new portals load the matches automatically and do not stop at these details, much less to correct them.
Angelito is in sixth place, two behind
Gonzalo Higuaín
, who reached 31 goals in 75 games. There is also a difference here, since in some places he appears with 32 (at least there is a coincidence that the three goals he scored against Guatemala in 2008 were with the Sub 23). On the other hand, in the match against Sweden on February 6, 2013 in Solna (3-2), Argentina's first goal, after two minutes, was clearly against them. Higuaín tries to look for Messi who was entering as a center forward, Lustig's foot gets in the way, and he overcomes his own fence. Higuaín's face at the celebration clearly demonstrates that his intentions were different.
In the top 10 there is only one defender:
Daniel Alberto Passarella
. The captain of Argentina to the world title in 1978 reached 23 victories in 68 games. With great strikes and headers, 10 goals were from penalties, 5 from free kicks, 5 from headers, two from free kicks, and another from a play. There were also controversial goals from the Kaiser. At the Mundialito in Uruguay, in January 1981, he scored the header to make it 1-1 against Germany, but when the ball was about to be taken by the goalkeeper, Manfred Kaltz scored it and the ball continued on its way to the goal. Then
Ramón Díaz
scored the second.
The Great Captain said in
Clarín
after the match: “There was a corner, another cross, I don't know from whom, and I jumped with everything. I overtook him in front and headed down. Afterwards I didn't see anything else. Only a German took her out from inside. “I ran away screaming like a madman.” He also shouted the goal against Peru as a local on the day of qualification for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico. Ricardo Gareca touched her on the line and was the scorer of the goal. But for the Brazilian referee Romualdo Arppi Filo it was all thanks to Passarella's good looks and that is why he said after the game that he left it stated on the official scoresheet that the goal was scored by the Argentine defender.
Of course, the number one position has no secrets or curiosities. Messi's 106 goals can all be seen and are well recorded. Total coincidence of criteria between the journalistic media.