Ronaldo at 40 ‘the best goalscorer of all time’

  • ECO News
  • 3 February 2025

On Wednesday, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo reaches his 40th birthday in a career full of records and trophies, and reaching 1,000 goals seems to be the ultimate career goal.

On Wednesday, Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo reaches his 40th birthday in a career full of records and trophies, and reaching 1,000 goals seems to be the ultimate career goal. “I’m the greatest goalscorer in the history of football. But I’m going to raise the bar. Soon I’ll have 900 goals and then I’ll reach 1,000,” he said in August in a conversation with former England international Rio Ferdinand.

Two days away from turning 40, Ronaldo already has 927 goals (including the U-20, U-21 and Olympic teams) in 1,261 games, and he’s still hoping to reach the 1,000-goal mark, which would be another milestone in his history, in which he has, among other individual awards, five Ballon d’Ors.

I don’t chase the records, the records chase me,” he wrote on social media in May, after becoming the all-time top scorer in a single edition of the Saudi League, where he hasn’t been happy, as he has failed to win any major titles, with the exception of the secondary Arab Champions League.

With many world football records in his possession and more than 30 titles, Ronaldo has only one major trophy left to lift, the World Cup, which he won’t be able to fight for until 2026, when he’ll be 41, something he doesn’t rule out, although it’s “impossible to answer“, and a feat that team-mates like Bruno Fernandes and João Félix have already said they’d like to help him achieve.

I want to live in this moment, which is very positive. In three days’ time, we’ll be playing an excellent team, and until 2026, there will be a lot of history in between. I don’t know what’s going to happen“, he said ahead of a Nations League clash with Croatia in September, acknowledging that it had “never crossed his mind” to leave the national team after coming up short at Euro2024.

In Germany, in his sixth European Championship, something no one else has ever achieved, Ronaldo came up empty for the first time in a continental tournament after scoring a record 14 goals in his previous five appearances.

It is in the Portuguese team that the Madeiran has one of his most remarkable records, after becoming the all-time top scorer for a men’s national team. This mark now stands at 133 goals in 217 games (more than any player has ever achieved), crowned by winning Euro2016 and the Nations League the following year.

A graduate of Sporting, Ronaldo moved to Manchester United as a youngster before a millionaire move to Real Madrid, where he enjoyed his best years, with a somewhat successful spell at Juventus, preceded by a failed return to the Red Devils, which he left to be the driving force behind a wave of transfers to Saudi Arabia.

On 14 August 2002, at the age of 17, Romanian László Bölöni launched the then-slight Ronaldo in a Champions League match against Inter Milan. His first goal (and then two) came in his sixth game, his third as a starter, against Moreirense.

His first good season and a special match against Manchester United at the start of the 2003/04 season sparked the interest of Alex Ferguson, who didn’t hesitate to take him to England for a measly 15 million euros.

He won his first Champions League with the Red Devils in 2007/08, against Chelsea. In that match, he scored a goal but missed one of the penalty shootouts.

After six seasons at Manchester United, Real Madrid decided to break what was then the transfer record by paying 94 million euros (the move to Juventus would be more expensive in 2018). This investment was repaid on the pitch by the Portuguese, who became the top scorer in the history of the “merengues” with 450 goals in 438 games.

Victory in the Champions League in 2017/18, his fourth for Real Madrid and third in a row, marked his farewell to the Whites. CR7 moved to Juventus for more than 100 million euros. In Turin, he won two Leagues, a Cup, and two Super Cups, scoring 101 goals in 134 games.

The long-awaited return to Manchester was bittersweet for Cristiano Ronaldo, who, despite scoring 27 goals in 54 games over a season and a half, wasn’t happy again and ended up leaving in a clear clash with Dutch coach Erik ten Hag.

The Red Devils marked Ronaldo’s farewell to Europe, leaving him as the top scorer (140 goals) and the player with the most games (183) in the history of the Champions League, a competition he became the first to win five times.

Cristiano Ronaldo became the image and driving force behind Saudi Arabia’s millionaire bet on football as a way of improving the country’s image abroad. His move to Al Nassr opened the door for other players to join a league that Ronaldo has often argued is better than some in Europe, such as Portugal or France.