Cristiano Ronaldo has proven over the years that it will take years before his home country, Portugal, can get a footballer that will achieve as much as he has achieved in his over eighteen years football career.
The Portuguese football legend has played for three of the major leagues in the world – Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A. In those leagues, he played for some of the best clubs – Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus, which he has helped to win titles, set and break records that will take years to undo.
In his 18 years football career which is not looking like will stop anytime soon, the 35-year-old forward has won five Ballons d’Or and four European Golden Shoes, both of which are records for a European player.
Besides that, he has won 29 major trophies in his career, including six league titles, five UEFA Champions Leagues, one UEFA European Championship, and one UEFA Nations League title. So far, he has scored a record 128 goals in the UEFA Champions League and the most hat-tricks in recorded history (56).
More so, he is one of the few recorded players to have made over 1,000 professional career appearances and has scored over 700 senior career goals for club and country.
No King as Ronaldo in the history of football in Portugal
On Monday, Cristiano Ronaldo became the first Portuguese footballer to score 43 goals in the Italian Serie A after scoring Juventus first goal in their 2-0 win which has given Juventus 4 points lead on the league table. He achieved this in less than two seasons in the league.
The record was formerly held by the legendary Portuguese midfielder Rui Costa who scored 42 goals in 8 years while playing for Fiorentina and then Milan between 1994 and 2006.
Besides that, Ronaldo holds the record of being the Portuguese player with the highest number of goals in the Premier League (84 goals in 196 matches for Manchester United) and also the highest number of goals in Spanish La Liga (311 goals in 292 appearances for Real Madrid).
The only Portuguese player in history that was close to his class was Luís Figo. Apart from Ronaldo, Figo is the only Portuguese player that has won the Ballon d’Or (2000) and the FIFA World Player of the Year (2001). He used to hold the record of being the most capped Portuguese player (127 caps) but Ronaldo has since broken that with 164 caps.
Ronaldo has also shown that it is not about winning titles for any club he plays for, he can also win something for the Portuguese senior national team. He established that fact when he led the national team to win the country’s first UEFA European Championship in 2016 and the maiden UEFA Nations League in 2019.
What else can we say, Ronaldo is truly a god of football in Portugal and it will take years for anyone from his country to come close to his records and achievements in the game.
