Cristiano Ronaldo: 700 goals and counting at senior level

Ronaldo celebrating the goal from penalty against Ukraine

Cristiano Ronaldo delighted his fans once again, when he reached a career landmark on Monday by scoring his 700th career goal in Portugal’s Euro 2020 qualifier in Ukraine.

The 34-year-old scored a penalty as Ukraine beat Portugal 2-1. His 700 goals so far have come from 973 matches – and he has scored at least once in 458 of those. His goal in the 2-1 loss to Ukraine was also his 95th for Portugal, leaving only Iranian Ali Daei in front in the international charts on 109 goals. The win for Ukraine, meanwhile, means they have qualified for Euro 2020.

Following is the list of players who scored 700 goals at senior level.

PlayersYears ActiveNationalityClubsGoals
Josef Bican1931-1955Czech-AustrianRapid Vienna, Slavia Prague805
Romario1985-2007BrazilianVasco da Gama, PSV, Barcelona772
Pele1957-1977BrazilianSantos, New York Cosmos767
Ferenc Puskas1943-1966HungarianBudapest Honvéd, Real Madrid746
Gerd Muller1962-1981GermanBayern Munich735
Cristiano Ronaldo2002-presentPortugueseSporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus700

Ronaldo has scored five goals against Andorra, Armenia, Latvia, and Sweden. He has four goals versus Estonia, Faroe Islands, Hungary, Lithuania, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands but has never scored a goal against France, Germany, Italy, or England.

At club level, Sevilla (27), Atletico Madrid (25), Getafe (23), Celta Vigo (20), and Barcelona (18) are the teams Ronaldo has scored the most against. All these teams belong to La Liga.

Ronaldo is no stranger to breaking records. You name it; he has probably broken it.

  • Most Champions League goals,
  • most goals in a Champions League season,
  • most goals for Real Madrid,
  • most appearances in European Championships,
  • most Portugal caps, to name but a few.

Ronaldo scored for following clubs at senior level-

ClubSeasonAppearanceGoals
Sporting CP2002–03315
Manchester United2003-09292118
Real Madrid2009-18438450
Juventus2018-Present5132

Statistics for Portugal

SeasonAppearanceGoal
2003-Present16295
Ronaldo accepted a new challenge as he moved to Juventus at the age of 34.

His ongoing tussle with Barcelona’s Lionel Messi to be considered as the GOAT (Greatest of all time), is legendary. Ronaldo’s goal against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League at the start of the month took him up to 605 club goals, two above Messi’s 603. The pair is the joint all-time top goalscorers in Europe’s top five leagues on 419. Ronaldo has 422 league goals, but his goals for Sporting Lisbon do not count as one of the top leagues.

Ronaldo still needs four Champions League final goals to break Puskas’ and Alfredo di Stefano’s record of seven, while he needs to score in the competition again next season to match Ryan Giggs’ record of netting in 16 consecutive seasons.

All time top scorer in international football

NameYears ActiveNationCapsGoals
Ali Daei1993–2006Iran149109
Cristiano Ronaldo2003-PresentPortugal16295
Ferenc Puskás1945–1956Hungary8584
Kunishige Kamamoto1964–1977Japan8480
Godfrey Chitalu1968–1980Zambia11179
Hussein Saeed1977–1990Iraq13778
Pele1957-71Brazil9277
Sandor Kocsis1948-56Hungary6875
Bashar Abdullah1996-2007Kuwait13475
Sunil Chetri2005-PresentIndia11272