“It’s a unique step in my career. It’s a number I’ve wanted to reach for a long time.” With these words, veteran Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo expressed his joy at scoring his 900th career goal, in his country’s 2-1 victory over Croatia in Lisbon in the first round of the European Nations League.
“I knew I would reach this number because as I keep playing it will happen naturally,” continued the 39-year-old, who found the back of the net in the 34th minute after a cross from Nuno Mendes at the Estadio da Luz on Thursday night. “It seems like any stage, but only I know, and the people around me, how hard I have to work every day to be physically and mentally fit to score the 900th goal.”
Ronaldo, who knelt down, looked emotional as he cried as he celebrated the goal, which took his tally to 131 goals in 213 international appearances for Portugal.
CR7 scored 769 goals with the clubs he played for, half of them with Real Madrid, while the rest of the goals were distributed over his playing periods with Sporting, Manchester United, Juventus, and his current club, Al-Nassr, Saudi Arabia.
“After what happened to us at the European Championship, we had to leave a good mark and that’s what we did,” he explained, referring to Portugal’s elimination at the hands of France at Euro 2024. The Portuguese striker is looking forward to reaching the 1,000-goal mark, having previously stated: “Records come naturally, you know. I don’t break records, it’s records that chase me. So I’m happy. But for me, the most important thing is to emphasize teamwork.”
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