This is a progressive list of men's association footballers who have held or co-held the world record for international caps, beginning with Billy MacKinnon, the only man to play in all of Scotland's first seven internationals.
Criteria
The criteria used by national FAs in considering a match as a full international were not historically fixed. Particularly for the early decades, and until more recently for FAs outside UEFA and CONMEBOL, counts of caps were often considered unreliable. RSSSF and IFFHS have spent much effort trying to produce definitive lists of full international matches, and corresponding data on players' international caps and goals. Using this data, the following records can be retrospectively produced. Note that, at the time, these records may not have been recognised.
One point of note is that early matches by the England Amateur side were played against the full national side of opponents. These matches are counted as full internationals by the IFFHS and the opposing FAs, though not by the (English) FA. This affects Vivian Woodward, who won 23 full caps and 30 amateur caps; the IFFHS considers him as the record-holder from 1909, when his total of 31 caps included 11 amateur matches.
Before 1977, the world record holder was always European, except when Ángel Romano narrowly overtook Imre Schlosser. After 1977, many sources, including FIFA and the Guinness Book of Records, reported later European cap records as world records. Subsequent validation of the caps claimed by Cha Bum-Kun, Hussein Saeed, Majed Abdullah, and Adnan Al Talyani has shown that, even stripping out ineligible matches, these players exceeded the contemporary European counts. Similarly, Hossam Hassan of Egypt was reported as having broken Lothar Matthäus' putative record of 150 caps in 2001.
In August 2021, four retired Malaysian internationals were retrospectively admitted to the FIFA Century Club, with Soh Chin Ann's 1984 appearance against North Yemen recognised as a record 195th cap, thereby annulling the putative record totals achieved in intervening decades by Cha, Saeed, Abdullah, Al Talyani, Claudio Suárez, Mohamed Al-Deayea, Ahmed Hassan, and Bader Al Mutawa.
On 14 June 2022, Bader Al-Mutawa surpassed Soh Chin Ann's record of 195 matches recognised by FIFA and he become the men's all-time record appearance holder with 196 caps.
On 10 December 2022, Cristiano Ronaldo equalled Al Mutawa's record of 196 matches recognised by FIFA in the 2022 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals against Morocco in Qatar.
On 23 March 2023, Cristiano Ronaldo surpassed Al Mutawa and become the men's all-time record appearance holder with 197 caps.
On 20 June 2023, he reached 200 matches and become the first male professional footballer to do it.
The women's international cap record is 354, held by Kristine Lilly of the United States, who exceeded Soh's total with her 196th cap against Norway in the 2000 Algarve Cup.
World record
See also
- Progression of association football caps European record
- Progression of association football caps Oceania record
- Progression of association football caps South American record
- List of men's footballers with 100 or more international caps
- List of women's footballers with 100 or more international caps
- List of world association football records
References
General
Specific
- ^ "IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics)". IFFHS.
- ^ Vivian John Woodward – International Appearances RSSSF
- "Matthäus sets new caps record against Netherlands". FIFA. 22 February 2000. Archived from the original on October 3, 2009. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
Matthäus was level with Sweden's Thomas Ravelli, both totalling 143 caps.
- Vecsey, George (17 June 1990). "World Cup '90; No. 120 Gives Shilton Record". The New York Times. p. 87. Retrieved 15 February 2010.
Shilton was honored in a brief ceremony before the game for breaking the world record, set by Pat Jennings of Northern Ireland. Jennings made his 119th and final appearance in the 1986 World Cup.
- McFarlan, Donald (1989). The Guinness Book of Records 1990 (36th ed.). London: Guinness. p. 248. ISBN 0-85112-341-4.
- Gleeson, Mark (8 January 2001). "Egyptian striker breaks caps record". FIFA. Archived from the original on March 22, 2008. Retrieved 14 February 2010.
- ^ Bernama (4 August 2021). "Four Malaysian legends join Fifa Century Club". New Straits Times. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ "FIFA Century Club" (PDF). FIFA. 10 February 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 November 2021. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- Shannon, David (12 January 2001). "Kristine Lilly — International Matches". RSSSF. Retrieved 8 March 2022.
- ^ Scotland – International Matches 1872–1880 RSSSF
- ^ Henry McNeil SFA
- John Price European football archive
- ^ International matches of Wales RSSSF
- ^ Norman Bailey FA
- ^ Stanfield Olphert Martin European football archive
- England Ireland v England – 1894-03-03 FA
- England v Ireland – 1895-03-09 FA
- Ireland v England – 1896-03-07 FA
- England v Ireland – 1897-02-20 FA
- ^ Meredith William Henry European football archive
- WALES v ENGLAND – 1914-03-16 FA
- ^ Imre Schlosser-Lakatos RSSSF
- ^ Angel Romano RSSSF
- ^ Severino Minelli RSSSF
- ^ Ferenc Puskás RSSSF
- ^ Billy Wright RSSSF
- ^ Bobby Charlton RSSSF
- ^ Bobby Moore RSSSF
- ^ The FIFA list of 195 caps is the same as the following RSSSF list of 219 caps except with 24 Olympic football matches excluded: HarimauMYstats; Mamrud, Roberto (11 August 2021). "Soh Chin Ann — Double Century of International Appearances". RSSSF. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
- ^ Bader Al-Mutawa RSSSF
- ^ Mamrud, Roberto (1 September 2021). "Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro - Century of International Appearances". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 10 December 2022.