2021 - A YEAR OF RECORDS
Picture : Cristiano Ronaldo (7) and Lionel Messi (3) broke 10 Records in World Football in 2021 !
Plenty of records beaten in 2021
The outgoing year was rich of updated records in the world football. In this table, we have compiled the most significant records that were broken in 2021, in chronological order.
For Cristiano Ronaldo, this year was especially triumphant. He took possession of two of the most important world records - on the number of goals for a national team and for the number of top-level official goals in general. And besides, he took a scattering of European records.
Lionel Messi has also taken two world records, for one-club and one-league goals, and in addition became the top goal-scorer of national teams in South America.
All these records Messi took away from Pele, who, thus, lost in 2021 most of his outstanding achievements, which he owned for about half a century.
| THE RECORDS | BEATEN IN 2021 | |||||
| New record holder | Date of beating | Zone | Type of record | By beating | By now | Old record holder |
| Lionel Messi | 06/01/2021 | W | One-club goals (Barcelona) | 646 | 672 | Pele (Santos) |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 27/02/2021 | W | Total goals | 766 | 802 | Pele |
| Kazuyoshi Miura | 10/03/2021 | W | First 5-decade player | |||
| Lionel Messi | 22/04/2021 | W | One-league goals (Spain) | 469 | 474 | Pele (Paulista) |
| Jude Bellingham | 13/06/2021 | E | Youngest player in Euros | 17-349 | 17-349 | Jetro Willems |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 15/06/2021 | E | Participations in Euros | 5 | ||
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 15/06/2021 | E | Goals in Euros | 10 | 14 | Michel Platini |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 23/06/2021 | E | Euro one-edition goals (incl. qualifying) | 16 | 16 | Davor Šuker |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 23/06/2021 | W | National team goals | 109 | 115 | Ali Daei |
| Italy | 05/09/2021 | W | Unbeaten series | 36 | 37 | Brazil, Spain |
| Lionel Messi | 09/09/2021 | SA | National team goals | 78 | 80 | Pele |
| Ronnie Brunswijk | 21/09/2021 | W | Oldest player in international games | 60-198 | 60-198 | George Weah |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 09/10/2021 | E | National team games | 181 | 184 | Sergio Ramos |
| Cristiano Ronaldo | 20/10/2021 | E | Games in European club competitions | 187 | 189 | Iker Casillas |
Abbreviatures: W – world, E – Europe, SA – South America