Football is the most widespread sport in Portugal as well as the country’s favourite form of entertainment. The national team is one of the best teams in the world, and Portugal boasts a triad of major football clubs that stand out in the ultra-competitive football scene in Europe. FC Porto, Sporting CP and SL Benfica are three leading clubs that enjoy undying and passionate support from their fans.
In the Portuguese football arena, Ronaldo attracts the attention of people from all corners of the globe. The question on all football fans’ lips now is how long will it take Cristiano to score a thousand goals in his breathtaking career. Only a proportion of supporters believe that a talented Portuguese player will reach this mark. Let's dive deeper into the details.
In February 2025, Cristiano Ronaldo is celebrating his 40th birthday. A respectable age but one that is no obstacle for the star footballer. Not only does he continue to score, but he also rewrites one record after another. In early September, Cristiano scored the 900th goal of his career, and now he is aiming to score a thousand.
When will Ronaldo score his 1000th goal?
Legendary striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic repeatedly compared himself to Benjamin Button in the latter stages of his career. The character of the movie David Fincher was born an old man, but over the years he became younger, that is, he lived his life in the opposite direction. We wonder if this image can be applied to Ronaldo. After all, Cristiano has scored at a faster rate in his thirties than in his third decade.
Currently, Ronaldo stands head and shoulders above all rivals in the game with 905 goals. His closest pursuer (Messi) has 843. Such data is provided by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS). The Portuguese veteran’s new benchmark is to score 1,000 goals. “This means a lot to me. I knew that if I played, I would reach the 900-goal mark. I’ve wanted to reach this figure for a long time. Now my goal is to score 1,000 goals,” the footballer said in early September.
It may seem that Ronaldo is simply fixated on statistics. But later, Cristiano told the Portuguese sports paper A Bola: “You have to take it easy, so as not to be obsessed with goals. Everything will come naturally. If it doesn’t, it’s okay – I think the 900-goal mark isn’t that bad.”
The Portuguese may be trying to reduce the pressure. Ronaldo is always focused on the maximum result, but he does not want everyone to count his every goal. Probably, this is just an exaggerated opinion. As in trading, where every successful transaction is welcomed, but not counted. On JustMarkets, you can use a stunning chance to enjoy a forex deposit bonus to multiply your deposit with a 50% bonus. It resonates with football, since the more you give, the more you get.
The Chat GPT network has had its say. According to artificial intelligence, Ronaldo will score his 1,000th goal on February 15, 2028. That is, 10 days after he turns 43. Do you believe that Ronaldo will play at a professional level at that age? Given how maniacally Cristiano monitors his body, paying attention to each calorie, anything is possible. In addition, it is easier to break the thousand-goal barrier playing in Saudi Arabia than in a top league in Europe.
Cristiano has 10 goals in the current season (including goals for the national team), two months into the 2024/25 campaign. Let’s assume that Ronaldo scores the same amount in the next two months. Then he will meet 2025 with 915 goals, and for the whole of 2024, he will have scored 42 goals. If the celebrity keeps up this pace, he will reach 1,000 in 2027. Of course, this is provided he avoids injuries and incidents. And it is still unclear where Ronaldo will play after the summer of 2025. That is when his contract with Al-Nasr expires.
Has anyone ever scored 1,000 goals in football history?
According to IFFHS, Ronaldo is the first footballer in world history to reach 900 goals. The organisation only counts goals scored in official matches. But what about Pele? After all, he was included in the Guinness Book of Records as the footballer with the most goals (1,279). But the IFFHS recognised only 762 of them since the Brazilian scored over 500 goals in friendly matches.
Another Brazilian, Arthur Friedenreich, is said to have scored 1,329 goals between 1909 and 1935. However, at that time, many matches were not documented, and the IFFHS recognised only 354 goals. Brazilian Romario also claims to have scored over 1,000 goals during his playing career, but this has not been officially confirmed. By the way, that same Romario critically assessed Ronaldo’s chances of reaching a thousand goals in 2022: “It is impossible to score 1,000 goals because there is no one next to him, pushing him. If Romario were with him... It is true that Ronaldo already has 800 goals, but he is 37 years old. I do not believe that Cristiano will be able to reach a thousand.”
Do you think that Ronaldo will be able to break the world record and count 1000 goals as the top international football player?
