Despite being 38 years old and apparently nearing the end of his career, Cristiano Ronaldo shows no signs of slowing down. While the debate over whether Ronaldo or Messi is the best player of all time will continue indefinitely, the Portuguese superstar delivered a reminder of his quality with four goals in his country’s last two matches. He is currently on 859 career goals and despite his age, it seems like he will keep adding to the tally. CR7 will definitely be looking to breach the 1000-goal mark.
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Can Cristiano Ronaldo breach 1000 career goals?
With his two goals in Monday’s 5-0 win against Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cristiano Ronaldo now has 127 international goals in 203 matches. He has scored 859 goals in his career. Ronaldo, who will become FIFA’s all-time leading goalscorer in 2022, insisted last week that he wants to record 1,000 goals before retiring, after Porto president Jorge Nuno Pinto challenged him to do so.
Cristiano Ronaldo said, ‘He [Pinto] set me the challenge of reaching 1,000 goals. It will be quite difficult, but it is to see how I am mentally, my motivation. If, physically, my legs treat me as well as I treat them.’
He also said, ‘Let’s see. Until I reach 1000 I have to reach 900 first. I believe I will reach it. Now I always think about short-term goals. The target for 900 goals? I’m confident, but for 1,000 goals it’s a lot of stone to break.’
Given that no one has ever scored 1,000 goals, it is perhaps unsurprising that even Cristiano Ronaldo, who is known for his confidence, has expressed reservations about his chances.
But, given that the 38-year-old has remained an important part of his national team’s Euro 2024 qualification campaign – with nine goals in seven games – and is slated to lead the line at the tournament next summer, could he pull it off?
The math behind CR7’s aim of 1000 goals
After Monday’s brace, the Portuguese attacker moved ahead of Erling Haaland to become the world’s highest scorer this calendar year with 40 goals. At his current rate of production, his 40 goals in 290 days in 2023 translate to 0.14 goals per day. So, Ronaldo would be expected to reach 50 goals by the end 2023.
Cristiano Ronaldo would need to score 131 more goals to surpass the 1,000-goal threshold. If he keeps his scoring rate the same, it would take 936 days. Therefore, this would occur on August 24, 2026. If things are viewed differently, Ronaldo has played football for 22 seasons and scored 859 goals, which works out to 39.05 goals a season.
This calculation indicates that it will take the 38-year-old 3.6 seasons to reach the 1,000-point milestone. This would occur sometime around the end of the 2026–27 season, when Ronaldo would be 42. Cristiano Ronaldo would need 196 games to score his final 141 goals, assuming he has 859 goals in 1190 career games, or 0.72 goals per game.
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CR7 aiming to create history
Ronaldo, who is 38, will play roughly 40 games for Al-Nassr in all competitions this year. This is in addition to about 10 for Portugal, so he should surpass 1,000 points sometime in 2027. If a more immediate perspective is used, Ronaldo may play seven games by himself at Euro 2024. This is in addition to the expected 10 international matches he would play elsewhere that year.
Though it bears mentioning once more, the international and domestic calendar beyond the summer of 2024 makes it difficult to gauge Ronaldo’s future prospects. In other areas, despite his remarkable health and physique, it is impossible to forecast the injuries he could sustain as well as form and fitness issues.
Additionally, it is unknown if CR7, who has 40 more goals than his fierce rival Messi, will continue to represent his country beyond next summer. Even if Ronaldo’s form and conditioning go according to plan, it will be difficult to score 1,000 goals.
But if he were to succeed, it would probably happen some time between the summer of 2026 and the end of the 2026–27 season.
