Cristiano Ronaldo reached another milestone on September 6 when he scored his 900th career goal. The 39-year-old scored the decisive goal in Portugal's 2-1 victory over Croatia in the Nations League. Nuno Mendes crossed from the left wing for Ronaldo to tap the ball into the net in the 34th minute. This is his familiar way of scoring goals since he was at Real Madrid.
This goal caused Ronaldo to react emotionally, fall onto the field and cry. Last month, the Portuguese told his former teammates Rio Ferdinand that his goal was to reach 1,000 goals.
And the former striker of Sporting, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus is now just 100 goals away from that target. CR7 now has 131 goals for the national team and 769 goals at club level after 1,236 matches.
Ronaldo's first goal came in 2002, when he scored a double in Sporting's 3-0 win. CR7 has scored just five goals for the Lisbon-based club before moving to Man United in the 2003-2004 season.
Ronaldo's start at Old Trafford was mixed with promises and a bit of disappointment. Despite not playing badly, CR7 had to wait until November 1, 2003 to get their first goal against Portsmouth. A 27-match streak without scoring - from December 2002 to November 2003 - was the longest "failed" period in Ronaldo's career.
The 39-year-old striker scored a total of 118 goals in 293 matches during his first tenure at Old Trafford. Notable among them are his goals against Fulham in 2006-2007, Portsmouth in 2007-2008, Porto and Arsenal in 2008-09 along with a stunning header in the 2008 Champions League final. He is also the top scorer in the history of the tournament, with 140 goals.
In the summer of 2009, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid with a world-record transfer fee at that time of about 80 million pounds. At the Bernabeu, CR7 started the most explosive scoring period of his career.
The Portuguese has scored an average of more than one goal per game for Los Blancos, with 450 goals in 438 games. Here, he won 2 La Liga titles, 2 Copa del Rey and 4 Champions League. CR7's most effective scoring season was 2011-2012, with 69 goals in 69 matches for club and country.
In 2018, Ronaldo moved to Juventus, where he scored 101 goals in 3 seasons before returning to Man United in 2021. His second period with the "Red Devils" did not go very smoothly. CR7 scored 27 goals in 54 matches before moving to Al Nassr. Ronaldo has now scored 68 goals for the Saudi Arabian club.
Ronaldo will turn 40 in February next year and with his current scoring performance, he can reach the 1,000-goal mark if he plays until he is at least 41 years old.
CR7 has scored 57 goals for club and country in the 2023-2024 season, including 50 goals for Al Nassr. Therefore, at the current pace, he can reach 1,000 goals by the end of the 2025-2026 season.
