At 36 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo is still on the hunt for new records. With fabulous 107 goals in 176 international matches – Ronaldo is Portugal’s record player and goal scorer – it seems only a matter of time before the Juventus Turin striker breaks the international record of former Munich attacker Ali Daei: The Iranian scored 109 goals in 149 international matches. This Wednesday it could already play against France in the Puskas Arena in Budapest (9 p.m. /Magenta TV) be ready. Ronaldo absolutely wants to avert the first EM preliminary round in his country’s history with Portugal.
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After Platini’s ousting, the Portugal star catches up with Miro Klose
With his two goals in the opening game of the Portuguese against Hungary (3-0) and the hit against Germany (2-4), there are now twelve goals in the European Championship finals in the “CR7” history. In the list of the best European championship scorers of all time, he is now all alone at the top and pushed the Frenchman Michel Platini (9) into second place. “You woke the beast,” headlined the Portuguese newspaper Record after the opening win of the Portuguese and presented a determined Cristiano Ronaldo on the front page of the paper – the first player to be used in five European Championship finals, in which he also scored. In the group game against Germany, “CR7” also scored his 19th goal at World or European Championships. With that he equaled Miroslav Klose’s record.
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Far more sober than the Portuguese press, Portugal’s national coach Fernando Santos took note of the next entries in his captain’s history books after the start of the European Championship. “It doesn’t matter to me, because there are three more points for the team and the three points are definitely the most important for Cristiano,” said Fernando Santos. There is no question for him that his leader also catches Daei’s record: “If he didn’t make it, it would be very strange.” Even the superstar of the Seleção himself – despite all the show he knows how to put on – prefers to be humble when it comes to his own achievements: “You have to know how to suffer, fight to the end and always believe in it with all your might”wrote “CR7” on social media after the Hungary game. “The European Championship is a gallery in which only the best of the best are represented and where every victory has to be achieved with all your strength and with all sacrifices”, so Ronaldo.
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“CR7” also broke the best marks at club level
In his career, Cristiano Ronaldo has played for four clubs in 19 years. A total of 894 games the 36-year-old completed for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus Turin. 674 goals and 229 assists are on the books. He won the Champions League five times and “CR7” scored the most goals in a season seven times – a record! Since 2008, Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been in private competition to see who is the best footballer in the world. Messi has six awards here, Ronaldo five. Year after year, the Portuguese does everything in his power to shake it up – even if Robert Lewandowski was one of the most recently ahead of the game.
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“He just breaks one individual record after the other”, said Cristiano Ronaldo’s former teammate at Manchester United, Gary Neville, after the European Championship opener ITV Sport full of amazement and respect. Ronaldo’s international goals are an almost “outrageous record”, which is “downright ridiculous”. But he worked hard for the records. “He always includes the team, but at the same time he wants to be the best player in the world and be seen as one of the best scoring goals of all time,” said former England international Neville. And Gary Lineker, formerly a world-class striker for England himself, simply called Ronaldo “exceptional.”
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