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Latest News: Cristiano Ronaldo Scores 900^th Goal

It’s up for debate if Cristiano Ronaldo is the GOAT of professional soccer, but one thing is certain: He’s the most prolific scorer in the sport’s history.

The 39-year-old scored in the 34^th minute of Portugal’s UEFA Nations League Victory over Croatia on September 5, becoming the first men’s player to reach 900 career goals. “It was emotional because it’s a milestone,” Ronaldo said, according to the Associated Press. “It seems like any other milestone, but only I know, and the people around me, how hard it is to work every day, to be physically and psychologically fit, to score 900 goals. It’s a unique milestone in my career.”

Ronaldo moved 58 goals ahead of Argentinian star Lionel Messi, who’s in second place with 842 career goals. Late Brazilian legend Pelé is third all-time with 765. Ronaldo has previously said he hopes to reach 1,000 goals before ending his illustrious career.

A five-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best player, Ronaldo has the most goals in international competition with 132 following another score on September 8 against Scotland.

Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo is one of the greatest athletes in the sport’s history, winning the Ballon d’Or five times and becoming the first player to score 900 career goals. Considered a phenom as a teenager, 16-year-old Ronaldo signed with Manchester United in a record deal for a player of his age. He set a franchise record for goals scored in 2008, before transferring to Real Madrid the following year. He has since played for Italian Serie A club Juventus and is currently on the Al-Nassr FC squad in Saudi Arabia. Among his many accomplishments, Ronaldo led his home country to an emotional victory in the 2016 European Championship.

FULL NAME: Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro
BORN: February 5, 1985
BIRTHPLACE: Funchal, Portugal
PARTNER: Georgina Rodriguez
CHILDREN: Cristiano Jr., Eva, Mateo, Alana, and Bella
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro was born on February 5, 1985, in Funchal, Portugal, on the small island of Madeira off the country’s southwestern coast. He is the youngest of four children born to Maria Dolores dos Santos and José Dinis Aveiro. He was named after former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, one of his father’s favorite actors.

Ronaldo grew up in a largely working class neighborhood in a small tin-roofed home that overlooked the ocean. He was introduced to the game of soccer through his dad, who worked as an equipment manager at a boy’s club for a time.

His early life was shaped by hardship, as his father often drank too much. To help keep the children fed and maintain some financial stability, Ronaldo’s mother worked as a cook and cleaning person. The young athlete had often pushed for his father to enter rehab and address his drinking. His father, however, never accepted the offer.

By the time he was 10 years old, Ronaldo was already recognized as a phenom—a kid who ate, slept, and drank soccer. “All he wanted to do as a boy was play football,” his godfather, Fernao Sousa, recalled for British reporters, adding, “He loved the game so much he’d miss meals or escape out of his bedroom window with a ball when he was supposed to be doing his homework.”

By his early teens, Ronaldo’s talent and legend had grown considerably. After a stint with Nacional da liha da Madeira, he signed with Sporting Portugal in 2001.

In 2005, when Ronaldo was playing for Manchester United, his father died from alcohol-related kidney problems. The loss was especially hard for the then-20-year-old player, because he and his dad had been close. Two years later, Ronaldo’s mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Her treatment was successful, though she faced a reoccurrence of the disease in 2019. Maria also had a stroke in 2020 that required surgery.

Manchester United

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Cristiano Ronaldo holds the trophy after Manchester United’s UEFA Champions League victory in May 2008.

Ronaldo had turned heads with a mesmerizing performance with Portugal against Manchester United, wowing even his opponents with his footwork and deft skill. He made such an impression that a number of United players asked their manager to try and sign the young player, which the team soon did.

In 2001, Manchester United paid more than £12 million to sign Ronaldo, then just 16 years old. The deal, worth more than $14 million U.S. dollars, was a record fee for a player of his age.

Ronaldo didn’t disappoint: He showed his promise early on in the 2004 FA Cup final, scoring the team’s first three goals and helping them capture the championship. In 2007, Ronaldo signed a five-year, £31 million contract.

A year later, Ronaldo again justified his high salary when he put together one of the club’s finest seasons in history, setting a franchise record for goals scored (42) and earning himself the FIFA World Player of the Year honor for 2008. In all, Ronaldo helped steer Manchester United to three Premier League titles.

In 2009, the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid agreed to pay Manchester United a record $131 million for the chance to sign Ronaldo. Ronaldo’s commitment to Manchester United had come under constant question, and speculation swirled that he wanted to play elsewhere, so nobody was all that surprised to see Ronaldo leave.

“I know that they are going to demand a lot of me to be successful at the club, and I know that I’m going to have much more pressure than at Manchester United because I was there for many years,” Ronaldo told reporters. “But it means a new challenge and is going to help me be the best footballer.”

Ronaldo went on to compile an impressive list of individual honors and team trophies. In December 2016, he won his fourth Ballon d’Or award as the sport’s player of the year, beating out FC Barcelona’s Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo’s 2016 wins included the European Championship, Champions League, and Club World Cup, plus individual awards from UEFA and France Football magazine. The following year, he claimed a fifth Ballon d’Or to tie the mark held by his longtime rival, Messi.

Juventus

After dropping hints that his time with Real was coming to an end, Ronaldo confirmed the rumors in July 2018 by signing with Italian Serie A club Juventus, which paid a $140 million transfer fee to his old Spanish club.

Ronaldo paid tribute to Real fans in an open letter on the club’s website, writing: “These years at Real Madrid and in this city of Madrid have quite possibly been the happiest years of my life. I only have feelings of great gratitude to this club, to the fans and to the city. I can only give thanks to all of them for the love and affection that I have received.”

By most measures, Ronaldo’s debut season with Juventus was a successful one. He scored 10 times in his first 14 games and headed home the lone goal in a win over AC Milan for the Supercoppa Italiana trophy. After leading his club to its eighth consecutive Serie A title, he was named the league’s MVP in May 2019.

Al-Nassr

Although he left the team after 2008, Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in August 2021. However, his stay didn’t last long.

In November 2022, the team announced it had reached a mutual agreement to terminate Ronaldo’s contract and that he had left the club effective immediately. The decision came after an eyebrow-raising TV interview with Piers Morgan in which Ronaldo said he “doesn’t respect” team manager Erik ten Hag.

The question of where the coveted free agent would play next lingered into the following month. Finally on December 30, 2022, the Saudi Pro League team Al-Nassr FC announced it had landed Ronaldo with a contract lasting through the summer of 2025. According to reports, the annual value of the deal was worth about $200 million, including a $75 million playing salary and the chance to earn the rest through commercial agreements.

“In Europe my work, it’s done. I won everything,” Ronaldo said of the move. “I played the most important clubs in Europe, and for me now, it’s a new challenge.”

Ronaldo made his debut with Al-Nassr in late January 2023 and scored a league-high 35 goals across his first season. He said in August 2024 he plans to retire with the team within a couple years.

Portugal National Team

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Cristiano Ronaldo plays for the Portugal national team in July 2024.

On July 10, 2016, Ronaldo added an emotional victory to his collection. As his national team’s captain, Ronaldo led Portugal to the European Championship final against France.

Although he was sidelined after suffering a knee injury 25 minutes into the match, Portugal went on to win the championship title 1-0, their first international trophy. Ronaldo’s teammates said that he motivated them as team captain from the sidelines. “He gave us a lot of confidence and he said, ‘Listen people, I’m sure we will win this Euro, so stay together and fight for it,’” fullback Cedric Soares said after Portugal’s victory.

“This is one of the happiest moments in my career,” Ronaldo commented. “I’ve always said I wanted to win a trophy with the national team and make history. And I did it. Thank God, things went well for us.”

Ronaldo got off to a tremendous start at the 2018 World Cup, blasting home three goals in an opening draw versus Spain, before adding another versus Morocco to set a European record with his 85^th international goal. However, he was held scoreless in a 2-1 loss to Uruguay in the knockout stage, after which he declined to comment on his future with the national team.

He returned for the 2022 World Cup but started on the bench for the team’s knockout games in the round of 16 and quarterfinals. Despite entering the latter match, Ronaldo couldn’t help the team erase a 1-0 deficit against Morocco.

Playing for Portugal on September 5, 2024, Ronaldo became the first men’s player to score 900 career goals across international and club play in a 2-1 UEFA Nations League win over Croatia.

His contributions to his country have been memorialized in a bronze bust of Ronaldo at the airport in Madeira, Portugal.

Ronaldo, whose height is between 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2 according to most estimates, has set numerous individual and league records during his career.

Of his 901 total goals as of September 8, 2024, he has scored 132 during official international competition—the most ever by any player, according to ESPN. He is also the only player ever to score goals at five different World Cups.

Here are some of Ronaldo’s other noteworthy stats, with records in bold, according to the UEFA Champions League catalog:

• Men’s international appearances: 214
• UEFA Champions League matches: 183
• UEFA Champions League goals: 140
• UEFA Champions League final wins: 5
• UEFA European Championship matches (with qualifiers): 74
• UEFA European Championship finals goals: 14
  
• FIFA World Cup matches: 22
• FIFA World Cup goals: 8
• Ballon d’Or wins: 5

Ronaldo is in a long-term relationship with Spanish model Georgina Rodriguez. The pair were first seen together publicly around November 2016 and became an official couple the following year. Although neither has confirmed their potential marriage, Ronaldo has referred to Rodriguez as his wife in interviews as recently as July 2024.

Ronaldo and Rodriguez have four children. In June 2017, the couple welcomed twins, a boy named Mateo and a girl named Eva Maria, via a surrogate. In November 2017, Rodriguez added to their family with the birth of another girl, Alana Martina, and the couple most recently had daughter named Bella in April 2022.

Ronaldo’s eldest child, Cristiano Jr., was born to a former girlfriend in June 2010.

In 2018, police in Las Vegas reopened a 9-year old investigation into claims that Ronaldo had raped a woman in his hotel room. The accuser also filed a civil lawsuit against the star athlete.

The following summer, the district attorney for Clark County, Nevada, announced that he had reviewed the case and wouldn’t pursue criminal charges against Ronaldo.

According to Celebrity Net Worth, Ronaldo’s total fortune is estimated at around $600 million as of July 2024.

In March 2024, Ronaldo topped Forbes’ annual list of the world’s highest-paid athletes for the fourth time. He brought in an estimated $260 million due mostly to his lucrative contract with Al-Nassr.

• Many people look at me and think they know me, but they don’t at all.
• My father always taught me that when you help other people, then God will give you double.
• Listen, I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help, we can all help.
• When I was younger, I couldn’t understand the meaning of true friendship. Now I have more experience, and I know who loves me without wanting anything.
• I want to win all the trophies possible!
• I don’t like to do things by halves. It has to be done well.
• Either you like me or not. There is nothing in between.
• I look at the ball, I look at the net, and I say to myself, “Take the kick, Ronaldo,” then I shoot.
• The goals I have scored are a consequence of the confidence I have.
• I keep to my word, my promise, and dreams. I’ll never close any door to any club.