Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 900th professional goal for club and country during Portugal’s UEFA Nations League win over Croatia on 5 September. We look at the stats behind those 900 goals by the Portuguese legend.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s 900th professional goal came in Portugal’s 2-1 victory over Croatia in the UEFA Nations League, as he poked home Nuno Mendes’ cross from close range.
That goal came nearly 22 goals after his first – 8,004 days later, to be exact – scored for Sporting CP in their 3-0 win over Moreirense in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. Ronaldo would add a second in added time of that match, which was his first-ever league start and his sixth competitive appearance overall.
Those goals were two of just five that he scored for Sporting CP in 31 appearances for the club (excluding two that he made for their B team).
Overall, 769 of his 900 goals have come at club level, split between Real Madrid (450), Manchester United (145), Juventus (101), Al-Nassr and his first side Sporting CP (5).
The goal against Croatia on 5 September 2024 was his 131st at full international level for Portugal, as he extended his record as the all-time leading international goalscorer in senior men’s football.
This is a battle that he’s beating long-time rival Lionel Messi in, with the former Barcelona man on 109 goals for Argentina, while Iranian legend Ali Daei is the only other male player to score 100+ international goals (108).
Ronaldo’s tally of 131 international goals for Portugal is more than three times any other male player, with Pauleta (47), the legendary Eusébio (41) and Luís Figo (32) behind him in the rankings, while he is also the only Portuguese male to have won over 150 caps for his country (213).
It was ironic that Ronaldo’s 900th goal came at the Estádio da Luz in Lisbon, the home of Benfica. Of every opponent that Ronaldo has faced, it is Benfica he’s played against the most often without scoring (five games), just ahead of his four club appearances against Lille without a goal, and failing to score at international level in four games versus both Albania and Turkey.
He’s had no such problem scoring against Sevilla across his long career. His 27 goals versus the Spanish club are more than he’s scored against any other side, and two more than he’s netted against Atlético Madrid (23).
Barcelona have conceded 20 goals against Ronaldo – his fourth-favourite opponent – with 18 of those coming in El Clásico matches for Real Madrid. Only Messi (26) has scored more goals in El Clásico across history.
He’s scored against 198 different opponents for club and country overall, but in scoring against Zamalek in August 2023 in the Arab Club Champions Cup for Al-Nassr, Ronaldo completed a quirky record by scoring against a team starting with every letter from the alphabet.
Of all the teammates Ronaldo has played alongside, no player has assisted more of his goals than Karim Benzema (42), while Gareth Bale and Mesut Özil set him up 27 times each.
Across his career, he’s scored 66 hat-tricks, with his first coming for Manchester United in January 2008 versus Newcastle United in the Premier League and his last for Al-Nassr versus Al-Wehda in the Saudi Arabian league on 4 May 2024.
Ronaldo has even scored five goals in two separate matches – once in Real Madrid’s La Liga win over Granada and the other in their top-flight victory over Espanyol, both in 2015.
Much has been said about Ronaldo’s free-kick taking in recent years, but he has still scored 64 goals from direct free-kicks across his long career. He’s scored 164 penalties and nearly scored as many headed goals (152) as he has with his unfavoured left foot (173).
Overall, 768 of his goals have been scored inside the box, with 132 of them (including those 64 free-kicks) coming from outside.
Ronaldo will be 40 years old on 5 February next year and shows no signs of slowing down. He’s scored 437 goals since his 30th birthday and even netted 178 times after turning 35 in 2020.
Who can rule out Ronaldo appearing at the 2026 FIFA World Cup? He’d be 41 years and 120 days old on the opening day of the tournament and should he score at those finals then he would become Portugal’s oldest scorer at the tournament, overtaking Pepe (39 years, 283 days).
He would trail only Cameroon’s Roger Milla (42 years, 39 days) in the overall rankings – a record also set in the United States back in 1994, versus Russia.
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