Seven Footballers Who Play Better For Their National Team

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Former Leeds United, Borussia Dortmund, West Ham, Bayern Munich and Rangers players feature in this top seven.

Spurs flop Helder Postiga often played better for Portugal

It is a common complaint among football fans that some players perform better at club level than when they pull on the shirt of their national team. In England especially the likes of Wayne Rooney, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard – all serial winners at club level – have been accused of failing to replicate their form for the Three Lions.

Well, here at HITC Sevens, we’re looking to stem that tied, taking a look at some players who were considerably better for their countries than their clubs. Players such as Helder Postiga, who was seemingly cryogenically frozen between major tournaments for more than a decade, or Salvator Schillaci, a striker who never scored more than 15 Serie A goals in a season but won the Golden Boot and Golden Ball at the 1990 World Cup.

Here are our top seven footballers who play better for their national team:

7. Stern John

Stern John in action for Bristol City

Retired forward Stern John could never quite cut it in the Premier League, scoring just 5 league goals in 30 games in his best season in the English top flight. The former MLS star spent most of his career bumbling around in the Championship with the likes of Coventry City and Sunderland.

At international level though, it was a whole different matter. A bonafide star of the Trinidad & Tobago national team, John scored 70 goals in 115 games for his country, making him their all-time top scorer and a national legend. Compatriot Dwight Yorke meanwhile, who won three Premier League titles and a Champions League with Manchester United, managed just 19 goals in 74 games for the CONCACAF nation.

6. Jan Koller

One of the tallest international football players of all-time, Jan Koller stands at over 6″7′, and also happens to be a giant of Czech football, as the Czech Republic’s all-time leading scorer. At club level, Koller enjoyed decent spells in Belgium and Germany, winning a Bundesliga title in 2002, but he seemed to find another gear when representing his country.

Koller scored a total of 55 goals from 91 caps for the Czech Republic, forming an excellent partnership with Milan Baros – another player who could have made this list. Koller’s greatest achievement with the Czech Republic came in 2004 when they reached the semi-finals of the European Championships.

5. Egidio Arevalo

Egidio Arevalo in action for Uruguay

Whilst Englishmen seem to fall apart when representing their country, Uruguayans seem to turn into superheroes. There are a handful of La Celeste stars who could have made this list, but Egidio Arevalo is the obvious name. The 35-year-old has had an unremarkable club career, essentially a journeyman who seems to find a new club every season and has never held down a spot with a top club.

Yet Arevalo has amassed 89 caps in a strong Uruguayan national team, captaining the team for many of those games, playing in every one of Uruguay’s matches at the 2010 and 2014 World Cup’s and helping his country emerge victorious in the 2011 Copa America.

4. The Entire Greek National Team

Okay, maybe not all of them, but too many to list. Greece reached the knockout stages of the 2014 World Cup, the quarter-finals of Euro 2012 and only went and won the thing in 2004. The same number of European triumphs as Italy and one more than England… That’s an incredible record given the actual talent Greece has produced.

You could name the genuinely top class players Greece have ever produced on one hand, and still have a few fingers to spare. That’s not an insult to Greek football, but more a recognition of just how much the players who have represented them in the last couple of decades have over-achieved.

3. Henri Camara

The likes of El-Hadji Diouf and Papiss Cisse all trail Henri Camara when it comes to scoring goals for Senegal. The former Wigan Athletic man is the all-time leader in goals scored and caps won for Senegal, having bagged 29 goals from 99 caps. The highlight of his international career came at the 2002 World Cup, when he scored a brace against Sweden to put Senegal in the Quarter-Finals for the first time in their history.

At club level, Camara scored 31 goals in 126 Premier League games with the likes of Wolves, Wigan, Southampton and West Ham, before briefly dropping down to the Championship with Sheffield United. Remarkably, the 40-year-old is still going strong with Ionikos in the Greek third tier, where he has scored 5 goals in 10 games.

2. David Healy

Former Rangers striker David Healy

Another player who leads his countries all-time scoring charts, from the nation that gave us George Best and Joe Bambrick, it is Healy who reigns supreme, with 36 goals from 95 caps. His greatest moments for Northern Ireland include a shock winner against England in 2005 and an incredible hat-trick against Spain in 2006.

Away from Windsor Park though, Healy’s career wasn’t quite so glittering. He managed only a few seasons in the Premier League, scoring just 5 goals in 44 top flight outings. Healy was more impressive in the Championship with the likes of Preston North End and Leeds United, but still only scored 15 goals in his best ever season.

1. Lukas Podolski

Lukas Podolski hasn’t exactly had a poor club career, winning a Bundesliga title with Bayern Munich and an FA Cup with Arsenal, but it pales into insignificance when compared to his international career. Having impressed at Koln as a youngster, Podolski was snapped up by Bayern Munich, but scored only 15 league goals in 71 games for the Bavarian giants, returning to Koln after three seasons.

He moved to Arsenal in 2012, where it was a similar story, showing glimpses of his obvious talents but never nailing down a starting spot. For Germany on the other hand, Podolski was practically undroppable for more than a decade, scoring 49 goals from 130 caps.

A World Cup winner in 2014, he reached the Semi-Finals in 2006 and 2010, the final of Euro 2008 and the semi-finals of Euro 2012 and 2016. Podolski retired from international football earlier this year and is currently playing his club football for Japanese outfit Vissel Kobe.

Germany’s Lukas Podolski shoots at goal