SOURCE: STEP FEED

BY: MALIK AL ASH-SHAYK

The 2018 FIFA World Cup has witnessed historic Arab participation, as four Arab football teams – namely Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Morocco – secured their places in the global competition.

However, since the tournament kicked off in mid-June in Russia, viewers have been less than impressed with the performance of their national teams as none have managed to win a single game and failed to get past the group stages.

Having said that, the football magazine FourFourTwo recently published a list of the ‘Top 10 highest international goalscorers of all time’ and surprisingly, three Arab players among them…

Let’s take a look below:

1. Hussein Saeed, Iraq (137 caps, 78 goals)

Saeed is unsurprisingly hailed as Iraq’s greatest player of the century, having scored a record number of goals for his country.

The striker, a one-club man who played for Al-Talaba his entire career, enjoyed a particularly prolific 1984 for Iraq by helping them to the 1984 Gulf Cup of Nations.

There, he struck braces against hosts Oman and Kuwait, plus a hat-trick to sink Saudi Arabia. He retired in 1990, aged 32, following Iraq’s withdrawal from that year’s Gulf Cup competition… because of the refereeing…

2. Bashar Abdullah, Kuwait (133 caps, 75 goals)

Bashar Abdullah was part of the Kuwait national team that won two Gulf Cups and reached the semi-finals of the AFC Asian Cup. In total, the talented player managed to score 75 goals in 133 games between 1996 and 2007.

In 2000 he scored eight times in Kuwait’s 20-0 victory over Bhutan. Four days later, Bashar put five past Nepal, and in the early noughties, he regularly intimidated the likes of Singapore, Palestine, and Uzbekistan.

3. Majed Abdullah, Saudi Arabia (147 caps, 71 goals)

Saudi Arabia’s Majed Abdullah – often referred to as the ‘Desert Pele’ – burst onto the scene as a young 17-year-old, scoring seven goals in three games against Russia, Bulgaria, and Iran in a 1977 junior tournament.

He netted twice on his debut for the senior Saudi national team and managed to score an impressive 71 goals in 147 games between 1977 and 1994.

At the 1984 Olympics, he also scored against Brazil, and four years later, he helped Saudi Arabia draw with Argentina in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup. In addition, later that year, Majed scored the opening goal in a friendly game against England.

Here is the full list of the ‘The 10 highest international goalscorers of all time’

  1. Ali Daei, Iran (149 caps, 109 goals)
  2. Cristiano Ronaldo, Portugal (152 caps, 85 goals)
  3. Ferenc Puskas, Hungary (85 caps, 84 goals)
  4. Kunishige Kamamoto, Japan (84 caps, 80 goals)
  5. Godfrey Chitalu, Zambia (108 caps, 79 goals)
  6. Hussein Saeed, Iraq (137 caps, 78 goals)
  7. Pele, Brazil (92 caps, 77 goals)
  8. Bashar Abdullah, Kuwait (133 caps, 75 goals)
  9. Miroslav Klose, Germany (137 caps, 71 goals)
  10. Majed Abdullah, Saudi Arabia (147 caps, 71 goals)