20 Players Whose Record Is Better for Country Than for Club

The recent international break has brought with it plenty of big performances from key players for various nations, which often bring with them frustrated sighs from fans of club football, who find themselves asking, why can't he play like that for us?!

Sometimes, that's just the way the game goes; a player gets a feel for the national team and is inspired to perform well. Whether they got their first chance by a good spell of form, a lucky change due to injuries to others or even simply because there was nobody else to play, these players took their chances at international level and didn't give up easily.

Here are our 20 international stars who seem to fare—or fared—better with their country than at club level.

Robbie Keane gets us started and with good reason.

Though always an adept performer at the top level in England, he was never extremely prolific beyond a couple of seasons with Spurs. Certainly, his second spell at the club and his time with Liverpool were not goal laden.

For Ireland, though, he is a goal machine. With 65 goals in total, Keane is the highest scorer in his country's history and also the highest scorer in international football still currently active at that level anywhere in the world.

Big Jan Koller was another player who was particularly prolific in the international shirt of his nation, Czech Republic.

The powerful striker had a couple of seasons with Anderlecht and Borussia Dortmund, where he managed to find the net with regularity. However, his goals at club level all but dried up after 2003, and he never hit double figures during a top-flight league season after 2005, yet he still managed 22 goals for Czech Republic from 2005 until his retirement.

Overall, he hit 55 goals for his nation in less than 100 gamesa tremendous record of consistency.

Some strikers just take to the international scene. Peter Crouch, the journeyman forward who has played for seemingly every team in England, scoring a fair few for the likes of Liverpool but never reaching 20 for a single season and always having an air of inconsistency about him in front of goal.

For England, he hit 11 goals in 12 games during 2006 and went on from there, eventually ending with a better than one-in-two ratio, with 22 goals in 42 appearances.

He hasn't played for England in four years, but he still plays Premier League football.

Japan midfielder Junichi Inamoto earned European recognition with his move to Arsenal, but he never really settled in at the club and finds himself back in his home nation after a series of loan moves and short-term switches to Germany and France.

He only managed around 150 appearances for his various European teams over almost a decade, with issues over work permits and injuries reducing his playing time, but he remained a constant feature of Japan's squad regardless.

Inamoto amassed over 80 caps for Japan and featured at both the 2002 and 2006 World Cups for the Samurai Blue.

Asamoah Gyan seemed to have it all at the turn of the current decade: a flourishing international career and a big-money move to the Premier League.

Then, he suddenly opted to head to the footballing backwater of the UAE on a lucrative contract to play in a league in which he would score plenty but would be well out of the spotlight of any major achievements.

His talent isn't in doubt, though, and he frequently does well with Ghana—he's the nation's all-time top scorer with 45 and counting and has scored more goals than any other African at World Cup finals.

If Peter Crouch is the top-flight journeyman striker, Stern John is the same in the lower leagues of England.

He represented the likes of Nottingham Forest, Coventry City, Crystal Palace and Birmingham City during around a decade in the country, only managing to reach 20 goals for one team in England.

On the international scene, however, he plundered goal after goal with Trinidad and Tobago, hitting 70 goals all told in over 100 appearances, which makes him the joint-ninth leading scorer on the international stage in world football history—a phenomenal achievement.

Dutch defender Johnny Heitinga started life as an offensive-minded and technical full-back with Ajax, breaking through into the national team as a result and looking as though he could be an excellent all-round defender.

Somewhere along the way, he morphed into a rugged, no-nonsense but not particularly solid or reliable utility-man defender.

He remained a core part of the Netherlands side, though, despite flitting in and out of the starting XI of his club teams, and he made close to 90 appearances for one of the most exciting and technical national teams around.

South Korea forward Ahn Jung-hwan scored more goals for his national side than he managed for almost every single one of his club teams.

The attacker managed to score World Cup goals against Italy and USA in 2002, knocking out the former with his goal while he played in Serie A with Perugia. He tallied 17 for his nation all told, playing more than 70 times.

At club level, he only managed to win contracts for part-seasons in France and in Germany's second tier, spending more time in Asia either side of those moves.

Here's a more recent one: Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero spent the whole of 2013/14 sat on the bench for AS Monaco in Ligue 1, playing just three times as back-up to Danijel Subasic.

Before that, he enjoyed some success with AZ in Netherlands and played in Serie B in Italy with Sampdoria.

Nothing particularly noteworthy—except along the way he became the first choice goalkeeper of Argentina's national team, for whom he has made over 50 appearances, one of which came in the 2014 World Cup final as he helped his team go within touching distance of the ultimate glory in the game.

Kleberson is still referred to in Premier League circles as one of Manchester United's worst imports, having joined them in 2003 and having no impact whatsoever during his two years at the club.

A disappointing spell at Besiktas followed before he returned to Brazil, and he now plays in the NASL with Indy Eleven.

A very mediocre career by and large; one of a midfielder who worked hard but didn't quite have the ability to step up a level perhaps—except for the small fact that he was a pivotal player at the heart of the Brazil team that won the 2002 World Cup.

Work hard and the rewards will come: That seems to be the motto for many a midfield player, especially in nations with limited numbers of players to choose from.

Uruguay midfielder Egidio Arevalo Rios has built an international career on running, hard tackling and longevity, winning over 60 caps as a regular member of the team since 2010, playing in two World Cups, captaining his nation at the Olympics and winning the Copa America.

Not bad for a midfielder who has only managed to hold down a place at club level long enough to amass 100 appearances for just one team.

Shola Ameobi is a once-promising striker who played with England under-21s, developed into a muscular but immobile target man, rarely managed more than a handful of goals in any single season and only ever hit double figures in a league campaign once—and that was outside the top flight.

Almost a decade-and-a-half of service to Newcastle United ended with a red card on his last game after five league goals in his last three seasons. He has since moved to Turkey.

In 2012, Ameobi decided he would represent the country of his birth, Nigeria, at international level. Naturally, he hasn't played too many games since then—just 10—yet he's still scored a couple of goals and appeared at the 2014 World Cup for the side that had recently won the Africa Cup of Nations.

Ali Daei is a famous name on the international circuit and with good reason: He is the record holder for scoring the most goals ever at senior men's level.

Daei scored a whopping 109 international goals for Iran, the only player to ever clear the century mark and some 25 clear of his nearest challenger, the legendary Ferenc Puskas. Daei achieved his tally in just shy of 150 games for his nation.

At club level, he had a few years in Germany with Bayern Munich and Hertha Berlin, but he never managed more than half-a-dozen goals in a season. He fared better back in Iran toward the end of his career, but his exploits were certainly nothing in comparison to his achievements while wearing the shirt of his country.

Robinho made the breakthrough with Santos as a precocious youngster, another in a long line of players who were deemed to have the talent and goalscoring ability to become the new Pele—the new Brazilian hope and a superstar in the making.

Big moves followed to some top names in Europe: Real Madrid, money-era Manchester City and AC Milan. However, he couldn't find the consistency and the scoring form that had marked him out as such a big threat early on. A loan move to Brazil followed, and he's currently plying his trade back at Santos.

On the international stage, though, he has made a big impact; Robinho has won close to 100 caps, netting 27 goals along the way, winning the Confederations Cup and the Copa America and featuring at two World Cups. He's even earned a recall in 2014.

A decent left-back, reliable and stolid rather than rampaging or spectacular, Joan Capdevila seemed to simply fall into place as Spain's first choice just before Euro 2008.

As such, he became part of the all-conquering team that won both that tournament and the World Cup in 2010, with Capdevila not missing a single game in the latter, amassing 60 caps all told.

His domestic career, however, was far more modest; while the majority of his team-mates with Spain featured for Barcelona and Real Madrid, Capdevila spent most of his career with Deportivo La Coruna and Villarreal, with a 2002 Copa del Rey success with Depor his only silverware of note—well before he came to prominence in the wider footballing world.

Michael Ricketts was an English forward who featured just once at international level. It was a strange choice at the time and unfortunately marked the downturn of his career.

Playing at the time for Bolton Wanderers, Ricketts had impressed during his first few months in the English top flight—scoring 15 goals in all competitions before his call-up. After making his debut for England against the Netherlands in February 2002, however, he didn't score again for the rest of the season.

From that point on it was all downhill for the player; he mustered just 22 league goals across three divisions and 10 clubs over the next seven seasons. Essentially, Ricketts never managed anything in his club career beyond a quick upward curve and a long downhill slope. His 45 minutes on the international stage were the definite high point and the greatest success he managed.

Jozy Altidore gets plenty of stick for his lack of goalscoring at club level, yet remains a vital part of the side at international level for the United States. In truth, he's almost a perfect second forward: he holds the ball up well, supplies his strike partner and can really worry defences with his pace and power.

Unfortunately, other than a prolific spell with AZ in Netherlands, Altidore hasn't been able to translate that into a successful time in front of goal at club level. Outside of AZ, Altidore has scored a grand total of 19 league goals for his seven other clubs.

He does, however, have 25 international goals for the USA.

Back to England strikers with Darius Vassell, a former Aston Villa forward whose pace and ability to play wide as well as centrally briefly made him a valuable player for England, for whom he won 22 caps.

Vassell scored a spectacular goal on his debut for England (in the same game as Michael Ricketts' appearance) and went on to be included in the World Cup squad at the end of that season. He remained a part of the international side until Euro 2004, during which he was again in the squad and featured at the tournament, missing a decisive penalty in a shootout with his last touch for England.

At club level, Vassell moved from Villa to Manchester City and later elsewhere, but he only ever once managed double figures in a single league season and did not achieve 100 goals in his entire club career.

Bernard Diomede was a skilful and pacy left winger who was part of the France team that won the 1998 World Cup. He only made his debut for Les Bleus earlier that year and never played for them again following those finals, yet he made a telling contribution during his eight caps and lifted the greatest trophy of all.

Either side of that startling ascent to the top of the footballing ladder, he played well, if not superlatively, for Auxerre in his home country.

A move to Liverpool followed in 2000, but his career all but ended then. He barely featured in three years in England, spent a year with Ajaccio and short-term stints elsewhere in France, but he couldn't find a club to stay with and eventually retired to set up his own football academy.

We finish up with Henri Camara: a star name from Senegal's greatest team, which reached the World Cup quarter-finals in 2002 as he scored twice along the way.

The forward also played in three Africa Cup of Nations tournaments and made an impressive 99 appearances for his country, making him Senegal's most capped player. He is also the nation's all-time top scorer with 29 goals to his name.

Meanwhile, at club level the most consistency he could manage was four years at Wigan Athletic, during which time he scored just 20 league goals. Other than that, he never managed more than two complete seasons with the same team until moving to Greece, where he still plays now at the age of 37.

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