There is no doubt that Ronaldo will be alone on the throne – he currently shares the top scorer on the men’s side with Iran’s Ali Daei. Both have scored 109 goals. But the former Bayern Munich player Ali Daei’s career is over for a long time.
The only question is whether it will happen during this year’s European Championships. On Sunday night, Ronaldo’s Portugal will face Belgium in the round of 16, a Belgium that has perhaps impressed most of all so far in the tournament.
Ronaldo is currently making his fifth European Championship play-off, record it too, and sees no obstacles in playing further towards the age of 40.
– I have no plans to quit in the near future, not in two or three years at least. It will mean a lot of sacrifices, but in the end it is worth it, Ronaldo said earlier in the season at the Globe Soccer Awards.
When Cristiano Ronaldo shot his first national team goal in the European Championships in 2004, he had managed his debut season at Manchester United. Then it was a relatively skinny 19-year-old who scored the late consolation goal in the group stage match against the future European champions Greece (1-2).
Ronaldo was seen by some critics as thin and weak. United legend Wayne Rooney has told The Times how he was allowed to drive Ronaldo to McDonald’s the night before a league match.
– He tried to put on weight because he was so thin. I drove the car and had to stop at a drive-in to give him a Big Mac, Rooney said.
– Ronaldo, then at Real Madrid, during the Champions League final against Atlético Madrid in 2014.
Photo: Paulo Duarte
Junk food times are long gone and Ronaldo has developed into a physical monster. He is extremely careful with his diet, how he replenishes his energy stores and how he exercises effectively.
Ronaldo has told how after a double breakfast he eats two lunches and two dinners a day, usually fish dishes or chicken and pasta, never cooked in salt. The diet has also inspired Norwegian superstar Erling Braut Haaland to eat healthier.
– I eat food with a high protein content with a lot of carbohydrates on whole grains, fruits and vegetables and I avoid sweetened food, the Portuguese has told goal.com.
The stage during the press conference the day before the European Championship premiere against Hungary on June 15 is telling. Ronaldo demonstratively lifted the two Coca-Cola bottles off the podium. “Drink water,” Ronaldo said as he put the sugary drinks out of sight and seemed to give the evil eye to the soda giant.
Several players followed his example, which led Uefa, the European Football Association, to warn the national teams that there may be a fine if the sponsor drinks are moved in a similar way.
As a further dispute, Ronaldo had a Coca-Cola bottle thrown at him when he celebrated his 2-2 goal against France in Budapest on Wednesday. The penalty secured Portugal’s place in the round of 16.
That goal was also goal number 109 in the national team jersey. In the first half, number 108 had come, also on penalties.
So how does Ronaldo have 109 goals come to? 14 of them are on penalties and ten directly on free kicks into goal. All goals in fixed situations are made with the right foot, as well as another 35 in open play. Remarkably, 25 goals have been scored with his left foot, which shows that he is far from single-footed. Then 25 nick goals are added.
He has enjoyed scoring goals against Sweden the best. Swedish goalkeepers have had to whiten the net seven times, as many as Lithuania’s goalkeepers.
The heaviest memory for Ronaldo for Sweden is the playoff matches for the World Cup 2014 in the autumn of 2013. On November 15, he scored the lead-heavy 1-0 goal in the first meeting in Lisbon in the 82nd minute. A typical “Ronaldo time”, he often increases the pace in the last quarter.
In the return to Råsunda four days later, it did not happen that Ronaldo scored a goal because Sweden then had to score three.
It ended with Ronaldo doing – three. First 1-0, which was followed by two quick Zlatan Ibrahimovic goals for Sweden. But in the 76th minute Ronaldo equalized to 2-2 and two minutes later he also made it 3-2 behind Andreas Isaksson.
– Cristiano Ronaldo rolls in the 2-2 goal against Sweden in the playoff match for the World Cup 2014. One of his four goals in the two meetings with Sweden.
Photo: Joel Marklund / Bildbyrån
Goals 100 and 101 came against Sweden in the Nations League meeting in September last year (2-0 to Portugal). He also scored a goal in a friendly match against Sweden in 2017 when blue and yellow won 3-2.
However, Ronaldo’s goal average of 0.61 goals per international match cannot match Ferenc Puskas who scored 84 goals in 89 games for Hungary.
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