6 Strikers Who Are More Prolific for Their Country Than Their Club

​International and club football are totally different worlds, ones that often do not align.

History has thrown up some sublime players at club level that then could not perform quite so admirably for their countries, and vice versa.

Paul Scholes and David Ginola offer examples of the former, and Lukas Podolski and Asamoah Gyan the latter.

Every now and then, a striker comes around that manages to score in abundance, but only at international level. Here are six such players around today.

Olivier Giroud

The classic example over the last few years, Olivier Gi​roud has spent the last decade or so scoring semi-regularly for Arsenal and Chelsea in the Premier League.

When a manager finds his man though, it can be hard for anyone to dislodge him, and Didier Deschamps’ love for Giroud has helped his France career flourish. Noted Formula 1 driver Karim Benzema has been the loser.

Giroud has scored a meagre seven league goals in 49 games for Chelsea, but 39 in 97 France internationals presents a different picture entirely - only Michel Platini and Thierry Henry have more.

Danny Welbeck

Roy Hodgson had a wonderful relationship with Danny Welbeck over his four years in charge of England. 14 of his 16 international goals came under Hodgson, and to have scored that many in just 42 caps is a surprising ratio for a player who has never been a consistent threat at club level.

Welbeck is still yet to break his league duck for current club Watford after nine matches. It’s a far cry from the man that scored more goals in Euro 2016 qualifying than ​Cristiano Ronaldo, ​Eden Hazard, ​Diego Costa and Robin van Persie.

André Silva

​André Silva’s consistency while on Portugal duty has to do with a group for 2018 World Cup qualifying that was laughably easy. They were fortunate to be drawn with Latvia, Andorra and the Faroe Islands in a single group, and Silva filled his boots.

Nine of his 15 goals from 34 caps came in the qualifying campaign for that World Cup. Talk about stat-padding.

Josip Drmić

Josip Drmić has looked out of place so far at ​Norwich City, while he was hardly prolific at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Bayer Leverkusen.

In the red and white of Switzerland though, it’s a different story. Drmić has long played second fiddle to Haris Seferović, a man he has a better international strike rate than - 10 goals in 34 games is a decent return, and it dwarfs his comparatively poor stats at club level.

Michy Batshuayi

​Michy Batshuayi joined Chelsea in 2016 with a reputation as a rampant goalscorer in Belgium and France, but since then he's been anything but - unless he’s playing for his country. 

Like Giroud, his record for Chelsea looks decent when his starts in cup competitions are considered, but his Premier League form for the Blues has never been great.

16 strikes in 29 Belgium games is quite the ratio, and has scored 11 in his last 16 appearances for the Red Devils. Frank Lampard could have certainly done with that sort of proficiency during Batshuayi’s cameos this season.

Javier Hernández

In September 2009, a love affair was born - ​Javier Hernández and the Mexican national side have needed each other ever since Chicharito's first cap.

He's put up decent numbers at club level throughout his career, but has never been a truly top striker.

However, he does have 52 international goals in 109 Mexico games. Portugal, Croatia, Italy, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands and Argentina have all fallen victim to his wily exploits. In Mexican colours, he becomes a frenetic forward and, clearly, a threat to any defence on the planet.