Cristiano Ronaldo is an anomaly in the football world.
I was watching some comps of Cristiano Ronaldo at Real Madrid and I told myself that this guy could definitely not be a normal human being. The goals were absolutely absurd. Little wonder the Madrid coach at that time revealed that his tactic for achieving such success at Real Madrid was simply called “pass to Ronaldo.”
Ronaldo and his short brother, Lionel Messi, have raised the bar for football so high that today it seems as though Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappé, and Vinícius Júnior shouldn’t even be on the Ballon d’Or list. Lamine Yamal, with only 9 league goals, who is expected to be a top contender for the Ballon d’Or, wouldn’t even be in the conversation back then. And the stats of players like Raphinha and Ousmane Dembélé wouldn’t sound insane at all. After all, that short Messi guy once scored 91 goals for club and country in a single season — a record that can’t even be broken by anyone.
Cristiano Ronaldo also single-handedly carried Juventus to a quarter-final comeback against Atlético Madrid with a hat-trick, after they had lost the first leg 2-0.
Ronaldo remains the highest international goal scorer with Portugal (130 gloals +) and is also the all-time top scorer of the UEFA Champions League.
Even more insane is the fact that for 15 years during their prime, either Ronaldo or Lionel Messi finished as the top scorer in one of the competitions they played. Between them, they have 13 Ballon d’Ors, 9 Champions League titles, and a combined tally of over 1,700 career goals.
Messi also holds the record for the most assists by an active footballer. Ronaldo has also scored 100 goals for four different clubs including Al Nassr. While Messi scored up to 600 goals for Barcelona during his time their there. Additionally both of them hold the record for most UCL hattricks.