While his place among the all-time football greats is already plug, Portugal and Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo reached another truly gigantic career milestone by scoring twice in Thursday ‘s 3-2 acquire in the Premier League clash against Arsenal to take his career goal tally past 800. Ronaldo — who was voted No. 2 among the worldly concern ‘s peak forwards in ESPN ‘s FC 100 for 2021 — has taken just 1,095 official senior appearances for his country, United, Real Madrid, Juventus and boyhood baseball club Sporting CP to score his 800th goal ( and indeed, his 801st ). That is a truly phenomenal accomplishment, whichever way you slice it. ampere well as leading the pack among his peers, there have been claims that Ronaldo is already the all-time ahead goal scorekeeper in the professional men ‘s game — though it very much depends whose consider you choose to recognition. confusion arises due to the dependability of the records dating from decades ago when the likes of Brazil great Pele and former Czechoslovakia striker Josef Bican were at their goal-scoring gaudery, with the looser classification of “ official ” matches meaning their respective totals vary wildly depending on the source. however, whether it ‘s an all-time record or not, there can be no doubt that Ronaldo now has 801 aged goals to his list as every single last one of them — from his very inaugural as a 17-year-old for Sporting against Moreirense on Oct. 7, 2002 to his two goals against Arsenal on Dec. 2, 2021 — has been witnessed, recorded and officially registered.

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How did he get here?

It ‘s worth recapping just how Ronaldo has become the top-scoring active men ‘s musician in universe football ahead of first strikers like Luis Suarez, Robert Lewandowski, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and even Lionel Messi .

Ronaldo’s career goals

Games Goals
Sporting CP 31 5
Man United (1st spell) 292 118
Real Madrid 438 450
Juventus 134 101
Man United (2nd spell) 16 12
Portugal 184 115
Total 1,095 801
Career ratio of 1 goal per 1.36 games

After joining United from Sporting in 2003 as a stringy winger with a preference for flashy tricks, over the next six years Ronaldo converted himself into a pitiless goal-scoring car, so much so that even teammates Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez — each one a top-drawer forward in his own right — adapted their own roles to in full support the apex of the United attack. In 2007-08, the season United won the second of three back-to-back Premier League titles and the Champions League concluding, Ronaldo scored 42 goals in 49 appearances for the club and won his first Ballon d’Or. By the meter he joined Real Madrid in 2009 for a then-world commemorate fee of £80 million, he was the complete package. In his nine years at the Bernabeu Ronaldo scored at a pace of more than a goal a game as he won 15 trophies including two LaLiga titles and four Champions Leagues. And his goal-scoring figures were n’t just padded out with recently goals to put the gloss on comfortable wins over LaLiga ‘s lesser lights — he scored batch of goals when they mattered most against the best opposition, in the biggest games. No wonder he collected another four Ballon d’Or trophies before leaving Los Blancos in 2018. At Juventus he continued his portentous scoring rate, netting a goal every 1.33 games during his three seasons in Turin, which garnered him five trophies including two Serie A titles. His shock absorber render to Manchester United in the summer did not do anything to knock his scoring shape, with his goals coming at roughly the same rate binding in England as he has extended his record score for Champions League goals to 140 goals. And let ‘s not forget his international exploits. Since making his senior debut for Portugal in 2003, Ronaldo has helped his country win the european Championship ( in which he is the all-time top scorekeeper ) in 2016 and the UEFA Nations League finals ( in which he is the all-time top scorer ) in 2019, and broke Ali Daei ‘s long-standing world record for goals scored in men ‘s internationals with his 110th strickle in September ( he ‘s since extended that total to 115 ) .Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 800th career goal in the 1,095th official senior match of his career. OLI SCARFF/AFP via Getty Images

How long could he keep playing?

Despite the mid-30s broadly being regarded as the “ twilight years ” in the standard professional football career, Ronaldo has adapted unusually well to keep playing at the peak level as he has aged. He will turn 37 future February, but retirement does n’t appear to be an at hand business. For one thing, he signed a contract at Manchester United until the end of the 2022-23 season when he returned to Old Trafford, with the option of a promote year that would take him past his 39th birthday were he to take it up. indeed, Ronaldo has actually stated on several occasions in the recent past that he plans to play on until he turns 40, should his soundbox allow him the prerogative. Around his 35th birthday last year, he told Marca :

“ much will depend on what I feel, on my motivation. Physically it will never be a trouble. I am treating myself well and I think can play safely for up to 40 years. “ The most significant factor, honestly, will be more psychological — that will be the one that makes the remainder. “ In any sheath, everything has a get down and an end. I wo n’t last a life but I silent feel strong enough to continue winning. I will stop if I have no incentives. ”

Fernando Santos, who as Portugal coach has won the 2016 european Championship and the 2019 UEFA Nations League with Ronaldo as his captain, does n’t disagree, telling TVI24 :

“ Cristiano is ready to play until he ‘s 40, but he does n’t know if it will happen. At some point he may feel that he no longer has the same conditions. “ He ‘s not a player who will lower his level, when he feels like he ca n’t be Ronaldo, he wo n’t. ”

He might not be american samoa quick as he used to be, but Ronaldo remains in flower physical condition and is rarely hurt.

Ronaldo’s goals before and after turning 30

Games Goals Frequency
Pre-30 718 463 1.55
Post-30 377 338 1.11

Given that he ‘s equitable scored his 800th career goal a short over two years since he scored his 700th — on Oct. 14, 2019, during a 2-1 loss in Ukraine — it is eminently plausible he could reach four figures before he calls it quits. It ‘s surely a boastful ask, but if anybody ‘s up for the challenge, it ‘s Cristiano. Like a all right Madeira wine, he is improving with age. In fact, he has actually become more fecund in the goal-scoring stakes since he turned 30 .

Can he keep scoring at the same rate?

While not excessively scientific, here we gauge the hypothesis of Ronaldo successfully hitting the 1,000-goal mark before the end of his career by examining a few different metrics. First and foremost, there ‘s every prospect he ‘ll play on past 40 given his unblinking commitment to seaworthiness, personal discipline and professional motivation. As things stand, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 801 senior goals for clubhouse and country combined. This official count does not include his goals for Sporting B at the very originate of his career or his external appearances at youth flush, which include two goals scored for Portugal ‘s under-23s at the 2004 Olympics .

Ronaldo’s goal milestones

Date Hat Tricks Pens
1-100 1/27/2008 1 11
101-200 12/4/2010 3 17
201-300 5/5/2012 12 19
301-400 1/6/2014 10 12
401-500 9/30/2015 11 21
501-600 6/3/2017 10 12
601-700 10/14/2019 7 20
701-800 12/2/2021 4 29

a far as Ronaldo is concerned, goals have never been difficult to find. In fact, they ‘ve been scored with clockwork-like regularity throughout his 19-year professional career. Since he left Manchester United for Real Madrid as a 24-year-old in 2009, his goal-scoring rate has never once dropped below one goal every 2.5 games for any clubhouse. From the very starting signal of his career forth, it ‘s taken Ronaldo roughly two calendar years to score 100 goals. That said, he rocketed from 400 to 500 career goals in the outer space of merely 662 days ( one class, nine months, 24 days ) between January 2014 and October 2015 during the identical height of his goal-scoring heroics at Real Madrid. Another laughably fecund purple plot like that and Ronaldo might well be ticking over into four figures sooner than anticipated .

He can always rely on penalties

From 11 penalties in his first 100 goals to 29 of them between 701 and 800, spot kicks have proved to be an invaluable and coherent generator of goals for Ronaldo. therefore much so that his second of the night against Arsenal, and his 801st in his career overall, was scored from the punishment spot — the 142nd time he has converted a blot kick. Some might use this as a cause to denigrate and debunk his finish tally, but as the old footballing proverb goes : they all count the same. If he continues as designated taker for club and nation, Ronaldo will be guaranteed at least 10 goals per year — which approximately contributes 40 more goals toward his projected end-of-career run, at the minimal. The less said about his free-kick conversion rate, the better .

So, can Ronaldo reach 1,000 career goals?

During his stopping point three fully, uninterrupted seasons ( 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2020-21 ), Ronaldo has maintained a rocky median of 47 goals in 55 games in all competitions per political campaign. As there were no international fixtures played between November 2019 and September 2020 ascribable to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have not included the 2019-20 season in the average. If the 36-year-old Ronaldo were to systematically score at this rate for the adjacent four years until the old age of 40, he ‘d score 190 goals in 220 games for club and state. If we add these 190 prospective goals to his current run of 801, we see that Ronaldo would fall narrowly light of scoring 1,000 career goals (801 +190 = 991 goals).

distillery, there is nothing to suggest that he could not raise his seduce game another flat while playing in the Premier League and Champions League for United. After that he could move to a club in another European league, or even move further afield to a league where he finds goals easier to come by. When it comes to Ronaldo and his frolic ambitions, feel tells us it ‘s best to not bet against him achieving the impossible. Additional research and writing by Tony Mabert