Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 900th career goal in his side’s 2-1 UEFA Nations League win over Croatia at the Stadium of Light in Lisbon on Thursday.
Ronaldo scored Portugal’s second goal in the 34th minute from a cross by Nuno Mendes, after Diogo Dalot had found the back of the net in the 7th minute. Dalot also scored an own goal in the 41st minute.
Ronaldo, 39, became the first player in the world to reach 900 goals, including 131 for Portugal, five for his first club Sporting CP, 145 for Manchester United, 450 for Real Madrid, 101 for Juventus and 68 for Al Nassar, for whom he currently plays.
“It means a lot,” Ronaldo said after Thursday’s game. “It was a goal I wanted to achieve for a long time. I knew I would reach that number because as I played more and more it would happen naturally.”
“It was emotional because it’s a milestone,” he added. “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.”
Bruno Fernandes, who played alongside Ronaldo at United, spoke highly of his legendary team-mate.
“We eventually stopped counting goals, but he didn’t,” Fernandes said. “He broke another record, a record for Portugal and once again raised the name of Portugal to a huge level. There are no words to describe it.”
