6 min readSep 7, 2024 07:16 AM IST
First published on: Sep 6, 2024 at 08:54 PM IST
Compressed in 900 goals spread across 21 years, 1236 games and numerous triumphs of Cristiano Ronaldo is a captivating tale of sustained evolution, unflinching devotion to his craft, a relentless quest for perfection, an unstoppable pursuit of greatness and astonishing longevity at the highest level.
The journey to the 900 has been as magnificent as the milestone itself—its dissection and details further capture the consummate and unreproducible goal-scoring greatness of Ronaldo.The only more jaw-shuddering aspect of Ronaldo is that he has not yet finished, his hunger for goals and glory still burning bright.
151 headers, 173 with left-foot
Ronaldo’s right foot is a tree trunk in flesh and bones. Naturally, the favoured foot has wreaked the maximum damage. As many as 574—the from the first goal against Moreirense to the 900th against Croatia—were executed with the right-foot. But unlike several others, he was proficient with the left-foot, which he had lashed for 173 goals. To put the number in perspective, his legendary rival Lionel Messi has netted only 104 goals with his weaker leg (right foot). His aerial prowess was equally exemplary (151, Messi’s is merely 26). He is such a behemoth that even if you discount the goals he had scored with his right foot, he still has scored more career goals (326, which includes one off the thigh and another from the elbow) than several wondrous forwards. For instance, the French legend Thierry Henry had scored only 15 more goals (with both feet, head, and other body parts) than Ronaldo without his strongest foot.
63 free kicks, 131 from outside the box
He has scored goals of all sorts. From volleys and back-heels to tap-ins and slide-ons, daisy-cutters to pile-drivers, of furious power and dexterous finesse, from under the nose of the goalkeeper to 42 yards. Expectedly, and in lieu with his transformation from a nippy winger to a callous poacher, 605 of his goals were wrought from inside the box. But when the opportunity beckoned he whiplashed from a distance. As many as 131 strikes—of which 63 were free-kicks—came from outside the box. Here, though, Messi steals a yard over him (152 goals from outside the box), but still that’s an astounding number.
He possessed a variety of dead-ball drills—the knuckleball, outside of the foot, from the instep—all delivered from the inevitable Ronaldo pose, arms to the hips, legs apart, the sleeves of the shorts pulled upwards, the brain tracing the path the ball would take, the eyes scanning the goal-wards obstacles. He struck the ball on a certain spot so the shot dips and swerves and is almost impossible for a goalkeeper to judge. He often combined those with perfection, power, swerve and audacity all at once. A Ronaldo free-kick is one of football’s original spectacles. An event in itself.
164 penalties
The most mind-twisting reality is not that he scored 164 goals (18 percent of his goals) from the spot, but that he has missed only 30, converting 84.5 percent. Messi’s corresponding number is 77 percent (109 off 139). It’s often held against him that he is greedy about taking penalties and reluctant to split among his teammates (read ‘Penaldo’). But given his clinicalness with penalties, he perhaps has every reason to feel that he has earned his right to take them.
272 after 33
Most careers wind down in their 30s. When Ronaldo left Real Madrid when he was 33—belting 450 goals for the Spanish giants—it was misconstrued as his self-realisation of diminishing skills. He has lost some of the explosive pace that had marked his twenties, but his goal-scoring knack remained as lethal as ever. Wherever he travelled, he scored truckloads of goals. So much so that he has nearly scored as many goals in his 30s (437, with five months to turn 40) as in his 20s (440).
50-plus goals in 8 season
The spring years of Ronaldo were from 2010-11 to 2017-18, from his second season to his final one in Madrid, a fruitful period where he won four Champions Leagues and as many as four Ballon d’Ors. Thrice he piled more than 60 goals a season, peaking at 69 in the 2011-12 instalment. It was also time he began to function as a centre forward, inhabiting the central areas of the box rather than wider regions as he once used.
Most of the goals, though, have come when he started as a left-sided forward (410); as a centre forward, his tally as centre forward is 348, and the rest accrued from the right wing or as a second striker. Interestingly, 48 percent of his goals for Portugal came as a centre forward (63 off 131), whereas he netted 45 starting on the left wing. The classification is just to show his adeptness in manning various roles across the front-line, as well as his adaptability to the game-plans of different managers. Real Madrid coaxed his best years (450 goals in 438 games).
Mission 1000
Ronaldo avers that the landmark 1000th goal is within his grasp. There is no mitigating reason that he couldn’t. His fitness could shame younger peers, he rarely picks injuries (missed only 82 games in his whole career), and is seldom short of motivation. Few could match his longevity—he is the sole surviving member of Euro 2004; his latest assist-provider Nuno Mendes was just four months old when Ronaldo scored his first competitive goal. The mean rate of his scoring means he could scale the 1k peak in two years. But Pele’s FIFA-approved figure of 1281—still subject to debates—is beyond him.
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates scoring their second goal. (Reuters) 
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