Over 62,000 Mexico supporters bore witness to a bit of El Tri history on Saturday night at the Los Angeles Coliseum as Javier “Chicharito” Hernandez moved clear of Jared Borgetti as the national team’s all-time leading goal scorer with 47.
Remarkably, Chicharito and Borgetti share the same strike rate for Mexico. The Santos Laguna legend scored 46 in 89 matches, and the Bayer Leverkusen striker has scored 47 in 91 — both make for an average of 0.52 goals per game.
Javier “Chicharito” Hernández (@CH14_) scores vs Croatia, is now the leading goal scorer in the history of Mexico’s soccer team! pic.twitter.com/zbykCiC5jj
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 28, 2017
Croatia defeated Mexico 2-1 on the night with Chicharito’s goal arriving via a header in the 87th minute.
The record-breaking goal for Chicharito pic.twitter.com/fa0v2dAlaz
— Jon Arnold (@ArnoldcommaJon) May 28, 2017
Chicharito will likely add to his total over an extremely busy month of June for Mexico. El Tri have another friendly, this one against the Republic of Ireland in New Jersey on June 1, before two massive World Cup qualifiers against Honduras and the United States at the Azteca.
Mexico will then fly to Russia to contest the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup. They’ll play Portugal, New Zealand and Russia in group play as Chicharito approaches the century mark for international caps.