Breaking down the numbers: Is Cristiano Ronaldo the greatest goalscorer ever?

 

With his goal against Sassuolo on Sunday, Cristiano Ronaldo has reached 760 career goals, with just two separating him from Josef Bican's all-time record.

The Portuguese forward scored five in 35 games at Sporting CP, 118 in 292 duels at Manchester United and 451 in 438 for Real Madrid.

At Juventus, Ronaldo has already scored 84 times in 106 encounters, also mustering 102 goals in 170 caps for the Portuguese national team.

Only Bican has more

If Ronaldo scores another two goals, he will break Bican's record (762) and become the all-time top scorer.

Various sources, including the Rec Sport Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF), note that Bican has scored a total of 805 times, yet MARCA only count goals scored in professional football.

Hence, we do not take into account the 24 goals he netted for Rapid Vienna's reserves or other regional sides.

Bican's 762 goals are distributed as follows: Rapid Amateur (3), Rapid Vienna (68), Admira Vienna (21), Slavia Prague (534), Vitkovice (74), Hradec Kralove (11), Dynamo Prague (22), Austria (14), Czechoslovakia (12) and Bohemia and Moravia (3).

Pele stopped at 757 and Romario at 740

Ronaldo has already overtaken the legendary Pele, who scored 757 goals, including 643 with Santos, 77 with Brazil and 37 with New York Cosmos.

Some give Pele 644 Santos goals, but there is one that most consider to have been a Sao Bento own goal.

Meanwhile, Romario boasted of having reached 1,000 goals at the age of 41 in 2007, but he has scored a total of 740 official goals.

Romario's first professional goal

Messi threatens Bican... and Ronaldo

The Barcelona captain has just overtaken Pele as the top scorer in the history of a single club and has registered a total of 718 goals in his career.

Messi is expected to overtake Bican too and then focus on another dispute with Ronaldo, this time for the player who will become the greatest scorer in history.

Messi emulates Maradona again

Unstoppable Ronaldo is about to turn 36

Aged 35 and ready to turn 36 on February 5, Ronaldo averages more than one goal per Serie A game this season, having played 13 matches and scored 15 times.

He is the league's top scorer followed by Romelu Lukaku (12), Ciro Immobile (11), Joao Pedro, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Luis Muriel (10).

Ronaldo didn't manage to be crowned Capocannoniere in neither of his first two seasons at the Old Lady.

However, he was top scorer once in the Premier League in 2007/08 and three times in LaLiga Santander in 2010/11, 2013/14 and 2014/15.

In addition, Ronaldo was named Champions League's top scorer on seven occasions - more than any other footballer - in 2007/08, 2012/13, 2013/14, 2014/15, 2015/16, 2016/17 and 2017/18.

Chasing Ali Daei

If Ronaldo beats Bican's record, one of the few left to break will be that of the top scorer in the history of the national teams.

Ali Daei holds the record with a total of 109 goals and the Juventus forward needs just seven to match it.

Official: Update Ronaldo’s return with Portugal

With ups and downs throughout last month’s pandemic crisis, Cristiano Ronaldo is ready to play for Portugal again.

Here begins the excitement for all the football fans around the world. Especially the Portugal supporters, as Cristiano Ronaldo has been called-up for international duty ahead of the break. On Thursday, the seleçao announced his name in the team roster to represent the country.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner tested positive for COVID19 on October 13 as he traveled to play for his nation. Eventually, Ronaldo missed Portugal’s 3-0 victory over Sweden. And furthermore, the striker also did not play in Juventus fixtures with Crotone and Verona in Serie A. Moreover, Ronaldo could not meet his old rival Leo Messi in the most anticipated clash against Barcelona in the Champions League. The Portugal star also skipped the away game against Dynamo Kyiv.

However, Ronaldo tested negative after 19 days. Consequently, he made a remarkable return to the field after the virus scare with a brace against Spezia. And Juve also defeated Ferencvaros by 4-1 in the European tournament this week.

Now, all eyes are set on the international games for Portugal in the coming weeks. Ronaldo’s side will play a friendly fixture against Andorra on November 11. Then, the former Real Madrid man will also battle in the Nations League matches with France on November 14, and Croatia on November 17.