Cristiano Ronaldo has scored his 900th career goal as Portugal kickstarted their 2024/25 UEFA Nations League campaign with a narrow 2-1 win over Croatia at the Estádio da Luz, maintaining their 100% competitive head-to-head record on Thursday.
Ahead of kick-off, the inaugural Nations League winner, Pepe, one of Portugal’s legends who recently retired, was presented with a commemorative shirt for his 141 Selecao caps.
One of the former centre-backs’ eight international goals came against Croatia, and after just seven minutes, he was celebrating from the sidelines as full-back, Diogo Dalot opened the scoring.
Bruno Fernandes was the architect for delicately picking out Dalot, who received the ball in his stride before calmly slotting through Dominik Livakovic’s legs from close range.
Having already threatened to double his side’s lead earlier, Ronaldo soon had his landmark goal, guiding in Nuno Mendes’ inch-perfect delivery on the volley.
Portugal took to their official handle on X(formerly twitter) to tweet celebrating the Al Nassr stars’ milestone hit of his 900th goal.
Meanwhile Guinness World Records acknowledged the Portuguese for reaching his milestone of 900 careeer goals in the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) by responding to debate on social media posts with a GOAT emoji.
The subtle recognition GWR further emphasised his legendary status in football, following this historic achievement.
The Al Nassr star’s 900th goal solidified his standing in international men’s football, and across club competitions, surpassing rivals like Lionel Messi and many others.
In a late post on X (formerly twitter), Guinness World Records quoted a BBC post celebrating Ronaldo’s historic new record, where it posted, “900 career goals for Cristiano Ronaldo. Incredible. #BBCFootball.”
According to reports, Ronaldo has scored 900 goals in 1,236 games since his professional career began in 2001, making him the top scorer in football history.
Lionel Messi, the Al Nassr’s star closest rival, has netted 838 goals in 1,069 games since 2003.
Josef Bican, who played from 1931 to 1956, scored over 805 goals in more than 530 games, while Romario, active between 1985 and 2007, recorded 772 goals in 994 matches.
Meanwhile Croatia weren’t without their moments, having failed to register victory at the UEFA Euro 2024 , Croatian fans will hope to get back to their winning ways in the next clash against Michal Probierz’s Poland on Sunday.
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