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Cristiano Ronaldo loves scoring goals and we love watching him do it. No matter what the odds are, you just cannot write him off. Just as his effect on the current Manchester United side was being brought into question, Ronaldo answered back on Thursday night with a brace against Arsenal.
Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest footballers of all time
Cristiano Ronaldo is not only one of the greatest goalscorers of all time but he is also one of the greatest players to have ever graced the game. He started off as a mercurial winger at Sporting Lisbon. At Manchester United, under Sir Alex Ferguson's tutelage, Ronaldo became an unstoppable force.
He has won the Ballon d'Or five times in his career and has been very much a part of the conversation every year for more than a decade now. Even at the age of 36, Cristiano Ronaldo has been showcasing irrepressible goalscoring form and it simply defies description.
Without further ado, let's take a look at five stats which show that Cristiano Ronaldo is the greatest goalscorer of all time.
#5 Highest goalscorer in Champions League history
The UEFA Champions League is Cristiano Ronaldo's favourite competition by far. He has won the most coveted trophy in European club football a whopping five times. Ronaldo first won it with Manchester United in the 2007-08 season.
He then went on to win four more with Real Madrid, three of which came consecutively from 2016 to 2018. The Portuguese international is the highest goalscorer in the history of the Champions League. He has scored 140 goals in 181 appearances in the competition.
His eternal rival Lionel Messi comes second with 123 goals in 153 appearances. Ronaldo has also been the top scorer in seven editions of the UEFA Champions League.
#4 Most hat-tricks in the history of international football
Cristiano Ronaldo has been in great goalscoring form for both club and country this year. He has been particularly good for Portugal this year and has been as prolific as ever and it almost feels like he has been a striker his entire career.
He won the Golden Boot at Euro 2020, scoring five goals and providing an assist in four appearances in the continental competition. He kicked on in the same vein for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
Ronaldo scored a hat-trick in Portugal's 5-0 win over Luxembourg to make it 10 hat-tricks in international football. In doing so, he overtook Lionel Messi, who has nine international hat-tricks to his name.
#3 Cristiano Ronaldo has now won the Golden Boot in three different leagues
Cristiano Ronaldo was inarguably Juventus' best player during the 2020-21 season. Although his teammates were largely inconsistent, Ronaldo delivered as the frontman on a consistent basis.
He scored 29 goals in 33 Serie A appearances in the 2020-21 season. Romelu Lukaku, who came second in the race for the 'Capocannoniere', scored 24 goals in 36 league appearances. Ronaldo had a much better goals per game ratio thanBelgian,g Belgian who is said to have had one of the best seasons of his career.
By winning the Serie A Golden Boot, Ronaldo has become the first player to win the award in three of the top five European leagues. He won the Premier League Golden Boot in the 2007-08 season before winning the Pichichi trophy with Real Madrid in three different seasons.
#2 First player to reach 800 career goals
By scoring Manchester United's second goal in their 3-2 win over Arsenal on Thursday night, Cristiano Ronaldo took his professional career goal tally to 800 goals. He didn't stop there though. Before the night was over, Ronaldo added another one to his tally with an emphatic penalty.
Ronaldo has become the first player in the history of the beautiful game to score 800 career goals for club and country. He has scored 686 goals in his club career. Ronaldo netted 450 goals in 438 games for Real Madrid. In his three-year stint with Juventus, he scored 101 goal in 134 appearances.
For Manchester United, he has scored 130 goals in 308 appearances while he scored only five during his time with Sporting Lisbon.
#1 Most goals in men's international football
Cristiano Ronaldo caught up with former record holder Ali Daei's international goal tally of 109 during Euro 2020. He has since sped away from the Iranian in no time. Ronaldo has now scored a whopping 115 goals in his international career.
He is well clear of his active competition which is Lionel Messi and India's Sunil Chhetri, both of whom have 80 international goals each. Ronaldo's appetite for goals doesn't seem satiable. He is always hungry for goals.
We all know that he wants to cement his status as the greatest footballer of all time. Whatever the verdict may be on that, there is no doubting that Ronaldo is indeed the greatest goalscorer of all time.
