Cristiano Ronaldo reached a significant milestone on Thursday by scoring the 900th goal of his illustrious career.
The 39-year-old scored a goal for Portugal in the Nations League match against Croatia, giving the team a 2-0 lead.
The striker celebrated emotionally and fell to his knees next to the corner flag in tears.
The goal was his 131st for his country. At club level, he has also scored goals for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and his current club Al-Nassr.
Goalscorer for more than two decades – Ronaldo’s goals
Ronaldo has such a long life expectancy that someone born at the time he scored the first competitive goal of his career would be 21 years old today.
On 7 October 2002, at the age of 17 years, eight months and three days, he scored a brace for Portuguese club Sporting in a 3-0 win over Moreirense.
He then moved to Manchester United and scored 118 goals in 293 games for the Red Devils before moving to Real Madrid in 2009 for a then world record fee of €94 million (£80 million).
He scored 450 goals in nine years with the Spanish giants before moving to Juventus in Italy.
He scored a further 101 goals during his three years at the Italian club before returning to United, where he scored 27 goals in 54 games.
But his return to the Red Devils did not end like a fairytale and in 2023 he moved to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, where he scored 68 goals and continued to rise.
Is Ronaldo the best goalscorer of all time?
There is no central database to determine the all-time leading goalscorer in men’s football, but Ronaldo has already led the way in official matches at a high level.
The Czech Football Association says that Josef Bican, who played for Czechoslovakia and Austria, scored 821 goals in official matches. Elsewhere his tally is given as 805 – but this includes goals for reserve teams and unofficial international matches.
Brazilian legends Pelé and Romario each claim to have scored more than 1,000 goals, but if you exclude friendlies, the number drops to over 700.
According to unofficial statistician RSSSF, Pele (769), Romario and Ferenc Puskas (both 761) are the players closest to Ronaldo in football’s elite.
Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s long-time rival, has scored 867 goals in his career.
“I want 1,000” – Ronaldo is not finished yet
Time is not on Ronaldo’s side as he is now 39, but the veteran is determined to keep playing until he reaches the incredible number of 1,000 career goals.
In an interview with his former Manchester United teammate Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel, Ronaldo said he was confident he could reach this milestone in the next few years.
“I want to reach 1,000 goals,” he said.
“If I don’t have any injuries, that’s the most important thing for me, that’s what I want.
“There are videos of all the goals I scored.”
