Keane heads scoring list

Republic of Ireland skipper Robbie Keane tonight became the first British or Irish player to reach 50 senior international goals as he scored twice against Macedonia.

The feat took Keane to 51 goals, ahead of England’s top marksman, Sir Bobby Charlton, whose tally of 49 he equalled with his Carling Nations Cup winner against Scotland last weekend.

David Healy is Northern Ireland’s record holder with 35, while Denis Law and Kenny Dalglish share the Scottish record with 30 and Ian Rush leads the way for Wales with 28.

But Keane’s landmark achievement puts him at the head of the home-grown goalscorers.

ROBBIE KEANE – 51

Ireland’s inspirational captain won his first senior cap against the Czech Republic as a teenager in March 1998 and opened his account with a double in a 5-0 demolition of Malta in October of the same year. He plundered his first hat-trick against San Marino in November 2006, but has also found the net against Germany, Spain, Italy and France.

SIR BOBBY CHARLTON – 49

Charlton scored against Scotland on his England debut in 1958 and won 106 caps. He went to four World Cup final tournaments and was a key man in the side which lifted the Jules Rimet trophy at Wembley in 1966 after his two goals had seen off Portugal in the semi-final.

GARY LINEKER – 48

Lineker won the first of his 80 caps against Scotland in 1984 and is one of only three Englishmen to have claimed four goals in a single international match (against Spain). He was the leading goalscorer at the 1986 World Cup finals in Mexico, where he hit a hat-trick against Poland, but he passed up the opportunity to go level with Charlton when he missed a penalty in a friendly against Brazil in May 1992.

JIMMY GREAVES – 44

Greaves scored his 44 international goals in just 57 games, and amassed six hat-tricks in the process. He struck on his debut in a 4-1 defeat by Peru in May 1959. However he missed out on the 1966 World Cup final with injury, and his replacement Geoff Hurst effectively won the game with a treble.

MICHAEL OWEN – 40

Owen announced himself on the global stage with a stunning strike against Argentina in the 1998 World Cup finals. He had become the youngest England player of the 20th century when he made his debut at the age of just 18 years and 59 days against Chile earlier the same year, but his international career stalled with Fabio Capello’s appointment as national coach.