Unfortunately, yesterday we received a mail from Guinness to inform us that they would not be accepting the proposal as a World Records title. While we are disappointed with this, it might not be the end of the application, as we can submit an enquiry on the rejection. We felt that the following text from the email was interesting: "Unfortunately, after thoroughly reviewing your application with members of our research team, we are afraid to say that we cannot accept your proposal as a Guinness World Records title." Could it be that the issue is as simple as the title of the record?
If that is the case, we've submitted the following as an alternative title: "Most consecutive years of scoring in international soccer"
The email also included the following guidelines:
Every record verified by Guinness World Records must be measurable by a single superlative, verifiable, standardisable, breakable and also present an element of skill.
Let's examine each point here
- Single superlative: Robbie scored in 19 consecutive years. No other player in international football history has scored in more than 14 years, currently held jointly by Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo
- Verifiable: International goalscoring histories are freely available online, we've done our own research (see below) but are open to correction
- Standardisable: Comparison of two (or more) players' goalscoring records is straightforward
- Breakable: A player would need to scored in 20 consecutive years to break the record. Difficult, but not impossible
- Element of skill: No other international player in the history of the game has come close to accomplishing what Robbie did. We believe this qualifies Robbie's record as an element of skill
- Imre Schlosser-Lakatos(Hungary): The Hungarian striker set the record by scoring in 11 consecutive years from 1908 to 1918 (inclusive)
- Ferenc Puskas(Hungary): The Galloping Major broke his compatriot's record in 1954 with a goal against Turkey. This was the twelfth consecutive year in which the striker had scored
- Andres Oper(Estonia): The Estonian striker equalled Puskas' record in 2008 with a goal against Malta
- Robbie Keane: Puskas and Oper's joint record was broken in 2010 when Robbie scored in a friendly against Algeria, and extended every year in which he scored until he retired in 2016
| Names | Country | Goals | Career Length |
Longest Streak |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Robbie Keane | Republic of Ireland | 68 | 19 | 19 |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | Portugal | 71 | 15 | 14 |
| Wayne Rooney | England | 53 | 14 | 14 |
| Hakan Sukur | Turkey | 51 | 16 | 13 |
| Asamoah Gyan | Ghana | 49 | 15 | 13 |
| Tim Cahill | Australia | 48 | 14 | 13 |
| Ferenc Puskas | Hungary | 84 | 12 | 12 |
| Didier Drogba | Ivory Coast | 65 | 13 | 12 |
| Samuel Eto'o | Cameroon | 56 | 18 | 12 |
| Lukas Podolski | Germany | 48 | 13 | 12 |
| Andres Oper | Estonia | 38 | 20 | 12 |
