Football
Anirudh Menon 3y

Cristiano Ronaldo's legendary career stats, ahead of stunning Manchester United return

Cristiano Ronaldo is back in Manchester. On the red side. As Manchester United work out the finer details of the contract, here's a look at how Ronaldo's career has gone by through the one prism he dominates like no one else. Numbers.

To warm you up, how's this? Cristiano Ronaldo's last goal for Manchester United was a free kick vs... Manchester City (May 10, 2009 in the PL, United won 2-0).

Now, the numbers -

Manchester United

1

Cristiano Ronaldo is 1 of 4 Manchester United players to win the Ballon d'Or while playing for the club. The other three? The holy trinity of George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law.

118

Ronaldo scored 118 goals for Manchester United in his first spell, in 292 games. He also provided 43 assists. In the league, he scored 84 goals. If he scores 16 more, he would become the first player to score 100+ goals in the Premier League and LaLiga.

7

His 84 goals make him the 7th highest scorer for Manchester United in Premier League history - he's 7 away from his soon-to-be boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.

10

Ronaldo won ten trophies at United, including one Champions League.

31

Ronaldo is the only Manchester United player to score 30+ goals in a season in Premier League history. In fact, only one player has ever scored more in a 38-game PL season than Ronaldo did in 2007-08 (31 goals) -- Mohammed Salah (32, in 2017-18). Luis Suarez (2013-14) and Alan Shearer (1995-96) have also scored 31 goals in a season.

42

In that breathtaking 2007-08 season, Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions. That's the third-most in a season ever by a Manchester United player, behind only Denis Law in 1963-64 (46) and Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2002-03 (44).

1

How's this for a quirky stat? Cristiano Ronaldo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer combined for just one goal in their time at United -- when Ronaldo assisted Solskjaer against Reading in December 2006.

Juventus

101

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 101 goals in just over three seasons for Juventus. . It took Ronaldo 131 games to reach the 100-goal mark for Juve; only the great Omar Sivori reached the milestone in fewer games for the club (124).

67%

If you're wondering what kind of positions Ronaldo took up on the pitch for Juve -- he played 90 of his 134 games for Juventus as a center forward (67%), averaging a goal every 105 minutes. He played 44 games as a winger, with a goal every 136 minutes.

33

Since he joined in 2018-19, Ronaldo has scored SIXTY EIGHT more goals than any other Juventus teammate (Paulo Dybala, with 33 goals, is second) and is the second highest assist provider (20 assists, 7 fewer than Juan Cuadrado).

His 101 goals also make him the fourth highest goalscorer in that timeframe (2018-19 to now) with Robert Lewandowski (147 goals), Lionel Messi (120), and Kylian Mbappe (112) ahead of him.

5

He won five trophies at Juve.

7

He was unable to win a UCL at Juve, but that's not from a lack of goal scoring - he scored 14 CL goals for the Italians, 7 of which came in the knockouts. The only Juve player to have scored more KO UCL goals? Alessandro Del Piero, who scored 9. In 19 seasons. (As compared to 3 seasons for Ronaldo).

Real Madrid

438

Ronaldo scored 450 goals in 438 matches for Real Madrid - that's a quite incredible goals per game average of 1.03! He is, by a margin, Madrid's top scorer of all time.

16

He won 16 titles at Real Madrid, including 4 Champions League.

Portugal

109

Ronaldo has scored 109 goals in 179 matches for his national team, Portugal. No one in the recorded history of international football has ever scored more for their national team. (tied with the great, now long-retired, Ali Daei of Iran)

CAREER

You know how they say most athletes decline once they are in their 30s, well...

320

Ronaldo has scored 320 goals in 356 matches (all competitions) since turning 30.

476

Since his PL debut in 2003, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 476 goals in 586 league appearances, the most of any player in the big-five European leagues in this time.

(Stats courtesy: ESPN Stats and Information Group)

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