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Cristiano Ronaldo is featuring in the UEFA Champions League for the 17th season. The Portuguese superstar has played with Manchester United for six of those seasons and turned up in the white ensemble of Real Madrid for nine campaigns. Now, he does it with Juventus in his second season with the Italian champions.
Ronaldo made his debut in the UEFA Champions League as a precocious 18-year-old for Manchester United against VfB Stuttgart in 2003-04.
But it would be three more seasons and 26 games before the Portuguese would score his first goal in the competition, which came in Manchester United's 7-1 mauling of AS Roma at home in the 2006-07 quarter-finals. Since then, Ronaldo has scored 126 goals in 137 games in the tournament proper (from the group stages to the final).
During the course of his record-breaking career, the Portuguese marksman has amassed a slew of records in the competition. Ronaldo is one of only two players, alongside Lionel Messi to have scored eight hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League. He is one of four players to have scored in 14 consecutive seasons, the others being Raúl González, Lionel Messi and Karim Benzema. Ronaldo also shares the record of scoring against 33 different opponents in the UEFA Champions League with former Real Madrid teammate Raúl.
Let us have a look at Ronaldo's standalone records in European club football's blue riband event.
Also read: 5 Scoring records within Cristiano Ronaldo's reach | UEFA Champions League 2019/20
# Most appearances by an outfield player in the competition
Ronaldo is one of 38 players to have made 100 or more appearances in the UEFA Champions League. With 164 appearances for three different clubs - Manchester United (52), Real Madrid (101), and Juventus (11), Ronaldo has the most appearances in the competition for any outfield player.
The next active outfield player with the most appearances is Barcelona's Lionel Messi (137).
Only former Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas (177) has made more appearances in the competition.
# Most goals in the competition
To drive home the brilliance of this record, we must say that Lionel Messi is the only other player in history to have scored 100 goals or more in the UEFA Champions League. He is still 15 behind Ronaldo, who sits atop the perch with 127 goals to his name.
The Portugal captain has scored 15 goals for Manchester United, 105 goals for Real Madrid at a phenomenal rate and 7 goals for his present club Juventus in his 17 seasons in the UEFA Champions League.
# First player to score 100 goals in the competition
Ronaldo became the first player in the UEFA Champions League to score a century of goals when he scored a hat-trick for Real Madrid against Bayern Munich in the 2016-17 quarter-finals.
It was Ronaldo's sixth hat-trick in the competition as Real Madrid went on to become the first team in the to successfully defend their title in the UEFA Champions League era.
# First player to score 100 UEFA Champions League goals for a club
Ronaldo became the first player to score 100 goals in the UEFA Champions League for a single club, Real Madrid, when he scored his 115th goal in the competition.
The Portuguese striker arrived at the landmark by scoring the first of his two goals against Paris Saint-Germain from the penalty spot in the second round of the 2017-18 season.
Real Madrid went on to win the first three-peat (three consecutive titles) in the modern era, as Ronaldo lifted his record 5th title in the competition.
# Only player to score in each match of the group-stage
Ronaldo became the first player in the UEFA Champions League era to score in each of the six group-stage games when he scored for Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabéu against Borussia Dortmund in the 2017-18 season.
Earlier in the season, Ronaldo scored twice against APOEL Nicosia at home, twice away at Borussia Dortmund, once each against Tottenham away and home before netting twice away at APOEL and rounding off with the record-breaking strike on the final matchday against Dortmund at home.
# Most goals in a season
Ronaldo scored 17 goals in the 2013-14 season, which broke the earlier record held by Lionel Messi (14) for most goals in a season in 2011-12.
During that campaign, Ronaldo scored one goal in the final against Atlético Madrid, two goals against Bayern Munich in the semi finals, one goal in the quarter finals against Borussia Dortmund, four goals in the round of 16 against Schalke 04 and nine goals in the group-stage.
Earlier in the season, Ronaldo's nine group-stage goals downed the erstwhile record of most goals in the group-stage held jointly by Ruud van Nistelrooy (2004-05), Filippo Inzaghi and Hernán Crespo (both in 2002-03).
# Most goals in the knockout stage of the competition
Ronaldo has the most goals in the knockout stage of the UEFA Champions League with 65 goals. 23 of these have come in the round of 16, 25 in the quarter-finals, 13 in the semi-finals and four in finals.
It is a standalone tally which is better than the third-highest tally of goals (60 by Karim Benzema) in the tournament. The player with the next best tally of goals in the knockout stage of the competition is Lionel Messi (46).
# Most hat-tricks in the knockout stage of the competition
Ronaldo is one of two players, the other being Messi, to have scored eight hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League.
However, the Portuguese striker's four hat-tricks in the knockout stage of the competition (three in the quarter-finals and one in the semi-finals). Once again, Messi is on the list behind him with two.
In fact, Ronaldo's last four hat-tricks in the UEFA Champions League have all come after the group-stage of the competition (against Wolfsburg in the 16-17 quarter-finals, Bayern Munich in the 17-18 quarter-finals and Atlético Madrid in the 17-18 semi-finals and 18-19 quarter-finals).
# Most goals against a single opponent
Ronaldo's ten goals in the UEFA Champions League against his present club Juventus is the most by any player in competition history against a single opponent. All ten goals against the Bianconeri came in seven games, whilst playing for Real Madrid.
The tally includes three goals in the group stage - a pair of goals in Madrid's 2-1 home win in the 2013-14 group stage, and an away goal in Madrid's 2-2 draw in the same season.
The seven other goals came in the knockout stage of the competition - a goal apiece in each leg of the 2014-15 semi-finals, two goals in the 2016-17 final in Cardiff, two goals in the 2017-18 quarter-final first leg in Turin, including that special bicycle finish and one goal in the quarter-final second leg.
# Most goals against clubs from a single country
With his goal for Juventus against Bayer Leverkusen in Turin on matchday-2 of the ongoing 2019-20 UEFA Champions League, Ronaldo recorded his 27th goal in the competition against a German club.
It broke a record he shared with Lionel Messi for most goals against clubs from a single country. Messi has scored 26 UEFA Champions League goals against English clubs.
# Most top-goal scorer finishes in the UEFA Champions League
Ronaldo holds the record for most top-goal scorer finishes in the UEFA Champions League, doing so on seven occasions.
The Portugal captain was the top-scorer in a UEFA Champions League season for the first time in 2007-08, netting eight goals for Manchester United in a title-winning campaign.
After a gap of five years, Ronaldo was the top scorer in the 2012-13 edition when he scored 12 goals for Real Madrid. Ronaldo's 17 goals in the following season lowered Messi's erswhile record of most goals in a season (14 in 2011-12). In 2014-15, Ronaldo shared the Champions League top-scorer position with Lionel Messi and Neymar, with the trio each scoring 10 goals in that campaign for their respective clubs.
With 16, 12, and 15 goals in his next three campaigns in the competition, Ronaldo became the first player to top the UEFA Champions League goal scoring charts for six consecutive seasons, before Messi ended the run in 2018-19.
# Most UEFA Champions League titles by a player
Ronaldo is one of 11 players to have won the European Cup/UEFA Champions League on five occasions.
However, the Juventus striker is the only player to win five titles in the Champions League era (1992-93 onwards), winning in 2008-09 for Manchester United and in 2013-14, 2015-16, 2016-17, 2017-18 for Real Madrid.
# Only player to score in three UEFA Champions League finals
Ronaldo scored for Manchester United in the 2009 final against Chelsea in Moscow and twice for Real Madrid. The first against Atlético Madrid in the 2014 final in Lisbon and then a brace in the 2017 final against Juventus in Cardiff. This made Ronaldo the only player to score in three Champions League finals. Ronaldo's four goals in the three finals is a record for most goals in a final in the UEFA Champions League era.
Four players - Raúl González for Real Madrid in 2000 and 2002, Samuel Eto'o for Barcelona in 2006 and 2009, and Lionel Messi for Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, have scored in two finals each.
Of the three players in the history of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League to have scored for two different sides in finals (Velibor Vasović for Partizan in 1966 and Ajax in 1969 Mario Mandzukic for Bayern Munich in 2013 and Juventus in 2017), Ronaldo is the only player to score in the final for 2 different winning sides.
