Love him or hate him, Cristiano Ronaldo’s 900 and counting career goals is an accomplishment that fans and foes alike should cherish, as the 39-year-old becomes the first player in history to reach the 900-goal plateau in competitive matches.
It’s perfectly fitting that when Ronaldo scored his 900th career goal, he was sporting a Portuguese uniform in Lisbon, the Portuguese capital, the city in which he began his illustrious career.
Since his Sporting Lisbon days in the early 2000s, CR7 — as fans commonly call him — has scored goals in all corners of the globe, representing some of the top international clubs at the world’s most prestigious soccer events.
While Ronaldo’s glory days are behind him, now playing in the Saudi Pro League, a player of his magnitude both on and off the pitch only comes around every few generations, so let’s celebrate the player that he is, Mr. 900-plus goals.
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As a teenager, expectations were high.
Leaving Madeira at age 11, the Portuguese island where he grew up, Ronaldo ventured for a life of opportunity after growing up in poverty. He wanted to follow his passion to become one of the greatest footballers, which he is today.
Ronaldo joined Sporting Lisbon in 1997, playing for their youth clubs before making his professional debut off the bench on Aug. 14, 2002. In his first full match on Oct. 7, 2002, playing the entire 90 minutes, Ronaldo scored a pair of goals to kickstart his tumultuous goal scoring run which has exceeded two decades long.
The Sporting Lisbon phenom ended up scoring a trio of goals in 25 appearances that season, but more importantly for Ronaldo, gazed into the eyes of the world looking to add soccer’s brightest star to their roster.
After a record transfer to Manchester United as a teenager and becoming the first Portuguese player to play for the historic club, Old Trafford — the home of the Red Devils — was where Ronaldo’s career excelled, reaching new heights at a very young age.
At age 18 on Nov. 1, 2003, Ronaldo scored his first of 103 career Premier League goals, which was also his first goal in a United uniform. He ended up scoring six goals in his first season in England, none bigger than scoring the first goal in Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Millwall to win the 2004 FA Cup for his first professional trophy — the first of many throughout his career.
Ronaldo continued to earn trophies throughout his career, finding his offensive breakthrough during the 2006-07 season.
Following a rather quiet second and third season when compared to his standards, the Portuguese striker scored 23 goals across all competitions during the 2006-07 season, leading the Red Devils to their first Premier League title since 2003.
Individually, Ronaldo won the Professional Footballers’ Association’s Player’s Player of the Year award, Fans’ Player of the Year award, Young Player of the Year award and the Football Writers’ Association’s Footballer of the Year award to become the first player to win all four major awards in the same season.
Ronaldo outdid himself the following season scoring a league-leading 31 Premier League goals to win the Golden Boot as Manchester United repeated as Premier League Champions. In the UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo scored United’s only goal in their victory over Chelsea to be crowned Europe’s top team during the 2008 season. He went on to win his first of five Ballon d’Or trophies that season (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017) and be named the 2008 FIFA World Player of the Year.
In 2008-09, Manchester United won the Premier League title for the third consecutive season, following 18 league goals by Ronaldo who finished his initial United stint with 118 goals in 293 games across six different seasons.
In the summer of 2009, Ronaldo was moved to Real Madrid for a then world record transfer fee of 80 million Euros, scoring half of his career goals while representing the Spanish giant.
In his first season with Los Blancos, Ronaldo found the back of the net 33 times before elevating his game to an even higher level, scoring 53 goals in 54 games in 2010-11, leading Real Madrid to the La Liga and Copa del Rey titles.
A year later, Ronaldo reached the 60-goal plateau for the first time in his career, kickstarting what was a remarkable run of scoring 60 or more goals in four straight seasons, accounting for an incredible 253 goals in a four-year span.
Ronaldo netted 451 goals in 438 competitive games over his Real Madrid career, scoring 312 goals in La Liga, 105 in the Champions League, 22 in the Cope del Rey, six in the Club World Cup, four in the Spanish Super Cup and two in the UEFA Super Cup.
In his nine-year Real Madrid career, Ronaldo went on to win four Champions League titles, three Club World Cups, three UEFA Super Cups, two La Liga titles, two Copas del Rey and two Spanish Super Cups. He also won the Ballon d’Or on four different occasions and was named as the UEFA Best Player in Europe three times.
Following his glorious Real Madrid days, Ronaldo moved to Juventus for three seasons, where he buried 101 goals with the Italian club which included a Serie A title in 2019-20, winning the 2020 Supercoppa Italiana and the 2020-21 Coppa Italia.
Ronaldo ended his European club career by returning to Manchester United in 2021 for a brief year and a half stint, scoring 27 goals in 54 games before moving to Al Nassr of the Saudi Pro League where he currently has 68 goals for the club.
On the international level, Ronaldo has scored the most goals amongst men’s international goal scorers with 132 goals for Portugal. His 14-career UEFA European Championship goals rank first in the competition’s history as Ronaldo is the only player to score three or more goals in multiple tournaments.
Ronaldo’s defining moment in a Portuguese kit came at the 2016 UEFA European Championship, scoring three goals in seven matches, guiding Portugal to their first major trophy in their history after defeating hosts France, 1-0.
Now at 900 (and counting) career goals, the only thing left to knock off his soccer bucket list is to become a World Cup champion, and he will have an opportunity to write a storybook ending to a marvelous career when the 2026 FIFA World Cup comes to North America.