Cristiano Ronaldo’s career has been built on accomplishing apparently impossible feats with merciless efficiency in front of goal. Throughout his trophy-laden career, the 37-year-old has shattered goal-scoring records for both Real Madrid and the Portugal national team, as the top goalscorer in both clubs’ history.
However, Ronaldo’s hat trick in Manchester United’s 3-2 Premier League victory over Tottenham Hotspur on March 12 has set a new standard for personal greatness. With his first treble since returning to United last summer, Ronaldo now has 807 career goals, making him the best goal scorer in the history of men’s football, according to FIFA.
Ronaldo’s goal-scoring heroics have revived United fans’ admiration for their idol and reinforced their belief that he is the ultimate ‘GOAT.’ However, because of the lack of accurate record keeping in pre-20th century football, some football historians argue it is difficult to tell for sure.
The record that Ronaldo has broken refers to FIFA’s projected number of games and goals scored over the organization’s existence, with Josef Bican netting an astonishing 805 goals between 1931 and 1955. Ronaldo is in his 20th year of professional football. However, there is still debate regarding Bican’s exact figures, with Brazilian legend Pele claiming to have scored over 1000 goals in his career – albeit this is disputed.
Ronaldo has established himself as the ‘top goal scorer in recognized FIFA games’ in terms of acknowledged recognition, but the debate will continue. When the final tallies were reported, the Czech FA contested Bican’s number of 805 and claimed that he had scored 821.
In this one, though, Ronaldo has the record keepers on his side, with his own stats being irrefutable and unconnected to amateur football, as are some of Pele’s goals. With 450 goals, Ronaldo has scored more than half of his goals at Real Madrid.
He has 136 goals for Manchester United, 115 for the Portugal national team, 101 for Juventus, and five for Sporting CP. Ronaldo is demonstrating that he can still score with the best of them, so there could be more goals to add to that total.
His 12 Premier League goals are second only to Mohamed Salah in England’s top-flight (20 goals). He was the top scorer at Euro 2021 and at the end of the Italian Serie A season with Juventus only last year (29 goals).
