Cristiano Ronaldo
Cristiano Ronaldo is football's all-time leading scorer, with 979 career goals, 146 for Portugal, five Ballon d'Ors and a Saudi Pro League title.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro is a Portuguese forward and the most prolific goalscorer in the recorded history of men’s football. Across two decades at Sporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Al-Nassr he became the first player to score 900 official senior goals, won five Ballon d’Or awards and five UEFA Champions League titles, and set the men’s record for international goals with Portugal. Since January 2023 he has played in Saudi Arabia, where his signing reshaped the Saudi Pro League’s standing in the global game and added a fifth country to the list of leagues in which he has lifted a domestic title.
| Vitals | |
|---|---|
| Born | February 5, 1985, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal |
| Position | Forward |
| Teams | Sporting CP (2002–03), Manchester United (2003–09), Real Madrid (2009–18), Juventus (2018–21), Manchester United (2021–22), Al-Nassr (2023– ) |
| Draft | None — youth product of Sporting CP (joined academy 1997) |
| Contract | Al-Nassr; active for the club into the 2026–27 Saudi Pro League season |
| Number | 7 |
Sporting CP
The beginning. Born in Funchal on the island of Madeira, Ronaldo moved to Lisbon as a boy to join Sporting CP’s academy and broke into the senior side in 2002, scoring 5 goals in 31 appearances across the 2002–03 campaign. A preseason friendly against Manchester United in August 2003, in which he tormented the English champions, convinced manager Alex Ferguson to complete his signing within days.
Manchester United
England and the No. 7. United handed the 18-year-old the famous No. 7 shirt once worn by George Best and Eric Cantona. Over six seasons in his first spell he scored 118 goals in 292 appearances, winning three Premier League titles (2006–07, 2007–08, 2008–09), the 2007–08 Champions League and the 2008 FIFA Club World Cup. His 42-goal 2007–08 season brought the first of his five Ballon d’Or awards and the first of four European Golden Shoes.
Real Madrid
The record years. In 2009 Real Madrid signed Ronaldo for a then-world-record fee of about €94 million. Madrid became the most productive chapter of his career: 450 goals in 438 appearances, a club record, at better than a goal a game. He won two La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues (2013–14, 2015–16, 2016–17, 2017–18), finished as that competition’s top scorer seven times, and added three more Ballon d’Or awards in 2013, 2014 and 2016 before a fourth in 2017. His tally of 140 Champions League goals remains the all-time record for the tournament.
Juventus
Italy. Juventus signed Ronaldo in 2018 for roughly €100 million. He scored 101 goals in 134 appearances, won Serie A in 2018–19 and 2019–20 and the 2020–21 Coppa Italia, and became the first player to finish top scorer in the English, Spanish and Italian top flights.
Manchester United, the return
The second spell. Ronaldo rejoined Manchester United in 2021 and scored 27 goals across 54 appearances before his contract was terminated by mutual agreement in November 2022, following a televised interview critical of the club and its ownership. The two spells left him with 145 goals for United.
Al-Nassr
Saudi Arabia. On December 30, 2022, Ronaldo signed for Al-Nassr and made his debut the following month, becoming the headline act of a wave of star signings that redrew the Saudi Pro League’s profile. In 2023–24 he scored 35 league goals, a single-season Saudi Pro League record, and 50 across all competitions. He was the division’s top scorer again in 2024–25 with 25 goals and was voted its Fans’ Player of the Season, though Al-Ittihad took that title.
The Saudi crown. On May 21, 2026, a 28-goal league campaign carried Al-Nassr to the 2025–26 Saudi Pro League championship — his first title in Saudi Arabia and a domestic league crown in a fifth country, after England, Spain and Italy. By 2026 he had scored more than 130 goals in over 150 appearances for the club across all competitions, becoming the first player to reach 100 goals for four different clubs.
Portugal
The national team. Ronaldo made his Portugal debut in 2003 and became the men’s game’s all-time leader in both appearances and goals, with 146 goals in 234 caps. He captained Portugal to its first major trophy at UEFA Euro 2016 and to the UEFA Nations League in 2019 and 2025, scoring the 61st-minute equalizer in the 2025 final before Portugal beat Spain on penalties. On September 5, 2024, in a Nations League win over Croatia in Lisbon, he became the first man to reach 900 career goals.
By the numbers
Saudi Pro League, Al-Nassr, season by season (Saudi Pro League · ESPN):
| Season | GP | Goals | Assists |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022–23 | 16 | 14 | 2 |
| 2023–24 | 30 | 35 | 11 |
| 2024–25 | 30 | 25 | 3 |
| 2025–26 | 30 | 28 | 2 |
Career totals
Ranks
- 1st Career goals, men's football history (979)
- 1st International goals, men's football (146)
- 1st UEFA Champions League goals, all-time (140)
- 1st Saudi Pro League goals in a season (35, 2023–24)
- 2nd Ballon d'Or wins, all-time (5, behind Lionel Messi)
Honors
- 5× Ballon d'Or (2008, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017)
- 5× UEFA Champions League
- UEFA Euro 2016
- 2× UEFA Nations League (2019, 2025)
- 3× Premier League · 2× La Liga · 2× Serie A
- 2025–26 Saudi Pro League
- 4× European Golden Shoe
- 2023–24 Saudi Pro League Golden Boot (record 35 goals)
Season and league figures per the Saudi Pro League and ESPN; career totals and ranks per UEFA, Guinness World Records and Transfermarkt, through October 2026.
The arguments
Ronaldo or Messi. The defining debate of the era pits Ronaldo against Lionel Messi. Ronaldo’s supporters point to the raw goal totals, the five Champions League titles, the trophies won in four different major leagues and a longevity that carried elite scoring into his forties. Messi’s backers counter with eight Ballon d’Or awards to Ronaldo’s five, a 2022 World Cup, and advanced metrics that favor the Argentine as a creator and all-round forward. Neither camp has produced a settlement the other accepts, and both largely agree the pair stand together above their contemporaries.
The Saudi move. Ronaldo’s 2023 transfer to Al-Nassr drew sharply divided reactions. Critics, including human-rights organizations, framed the Saudi Pro League’s spending as “sportswashing” meant to soften the kingdom’s international image, and questioned the competitive level relative to Europe. Defenders argue that Ronaldo’s arrival, and the signings that followed, measurably raised the league’s global broadcast reach, and that elite players have long chased lucrative late-career contracts. Ronaldo himself has said he believes the Saudi league can become one of the world’s strongest.
Counting to 1,000. As Ronaldo approached and passed 900 goals, observers debated how to rank the feat historically. His recognized total of official senior goals is the highest ever confirmed by mainstream record-keepers, but comparisons with figures such as Josef Bican and Pelé are complicated by incomplete archives and by disputes over which exhibition and youth matches should count. The milestone-chasing itself drew commentary, with some arguing it shaped his late-career choices on and off the field.
Why it matters
Ronaldo’s career is the longest sustained peak the sport has recorded: a player who won in England, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia, who holds the goal records for the Champions League and for men’s international football, and who scored his 900th goal at an age when most forwards have long retired. Whether or not he is judged the greatest of all time — a question that may never close — he is the measuring stick against which modern goalscoring is set, and the single figure most responsible for pulling the game’s center of financial gravity toward the Gulf.