Chelsea midfielder, Victor Moses, may unknowingly have entered the history books following his international retirement on Wednesday.
Moses announced that he would no longer represent Nigeria after just four years at 27.
Former Ghana star, Kevin-Prince Boateng, used to hold that crown having retired at 24.
However, the ex-AC Milan forward returned to the national fold after few years.
Here are four players who come behind Moses on the list.
Gerd Muller (28)
Muller, otherwise known as Der Bomber, scored an incredible 68 goals in 62 games for West Germany. He fired them to successive international titles in 1972 and 1974, scoring in both the European Championship and World Cup finals against the Soviet Union (twice) and the Netherlands respectively.
Muller only played in two World Cups (1970, 1974) but still held the all-time goals record (14) for 32 years until Ronaldo broke it in 2006 (15). Miroslav Klose overtook them both in 2014 (16), after grabbing Muller’s Germany goal-scoring record before the tournament started (albeit needing 75 more games to do so).
The ex-Bayern Munich man’s international career ended abruptly after the ‘74 win on home soil – apparently unhappy that the players’ wives weren’t allowed to attend the post-final banquet.
Paul Scholes (29)
Scholes never seemed to reach his true potential in an England team he believed was full of ‘very selfish’ players. The former Manchester United man’s international highlights include scoring on his World Cup debut in 1998 and grabbing England’s first hat-trick for six years in 1999 against Poland.
His England career ended prematurely after Euro 2004, though, where England lost to Portugal on penalties. Scholes had been pushed out on to the left wing in order to accommodate midfield duo Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard, and his ineffectiveness there resulted in him being substituted in his final game – an inappropriate end for one of the country’s greatest-ever players.
Eric Cantona (28)
Cantona is another United legend who saw his international career cut short prematurely. Following his infamous kung-fu kick on a fan during a game against Crystal Palace in 1995, his France legacy was over.
By the time his eight-month suspension had run its course, Cantona had lost his captaincy and been replaced by Zinedine Zidane as Les Bleus’ key man, never to be picked again.
In spite of France’s failure to qualify for USA ’94, Cantona managed 20 goals in 45 games for the national side.
Samir Nasri (27)
Following an exceptional season with Arsenal, Nasri was named French Player of the Year in 2010, making him a shoo-in for France’s World Cup squad. But he was left out, and again in 2014.
This and many other incidents resulted in Nasri stating that ‘everything’ about the national team made him unhappy. Following his exclusion from France’s 2014 World Cup squad, he retired from international football for good.
