Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed down an amazing marker to become the ‘Greatest of all Time’ in the world of football. Is the Portuguese now seeing off Diego Maradona and Pele, and leaving long-time rival Lionel Messi in his wake?
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner overtook the legendary Brazilian striker Pele with two goals at the weekend for Juventus against Udinese and now sits only one strike behind revolutionary 1930s striker Josef Bican in the all-time standings.
Ronaldo’s brace on Sunday meant Pele (757) was nudged down to third in the all-time goal standings — and now he has the No. 1 sport firmly in his sights.
The 35-year-old Ronaldo — with his 758 strikes — is now just a goal Bican in the table and he could surpass that total this week when Juventus face AC Milan on Wednesday.
So, where does that put the Portuguese in the rankings at the GOAT?
Quite simply, it puts him at the top.
He has done something many considered unachievable and inconceivable. He has usurped Pele, his playmaking, selfless skills outshine Maradona, and he has dominated Messi in recent years. He has also got us guys digging around to see what other records need to be broken before he is crowned.
There is a great division across the globe as to whether Ronaldo or Messi is the greatest active player — and if either has a valid argument to usurp Pele or Maradona as the GOAT. However, with this new landmark, and the fact that Bican’s tally is right in his sights (one goal is bread and butter for CR7), surely now the Portuguese — who picked up the ‘Player of the Century’ award in Dubai last week at the Globe Soccer Awards — has a strong, strong case.
It is quite an astonishing achievement given the rise in professionalism of the sport and the increased athleticism of the players and more dependencies on substitutes and squad rotation. Does he deserve to be the best of all time? Let’s take a look:
The all-time goalscoring standings
Josef Bican (AUT/CZE)
• Total goals: 759
• Total matches: 530
• Years active: 1931—1955
Josef “Pepi” Bican lit up the game in the 1930s, with his electric pace and deadly finishing. He shattered almost every goalscoring record going and many thought his total tally would never be beaten. Bican is revered in the Czech Republic and was Slavia Prague’s all-time top goalscorer with 534 goals in 291 official matches. He also still holds the record for being the all-time top goalscorer in the Czech top flight with 483 goals in 304 matches. Bican was a member of the Austrian side that helped reinvent the game with their attacking style during the 1930s. He then went on to represent Czechoslovakia from 1938 to 1949. He passed away in 2001 at the age of 88.
Cristiano Ronaldo (POR)
• Total goals: 758
• Total matches: 1071
• Years active: 2001-present
The Portuguese star made a name for himself when he shone in a match for Lisbon side Sporting against Manchester United, prompting then coach Alex Ferguson to swoop for the teenager in 2003. Champions League medals for United (1) and Real Madrid (4) followed alongside many league and cup titles, and he took his career haul of major club titles to 28 while at his present club — Juventus. He has also won the European Championships and Nations League with Portugal.
Pele (BRA)
• Total goals: 757
• Total matches: 834
• Years active: 1956-1977
The Brazilian was revered by youngsters and adults alike during his playing days from the 1956-1977 and he is still the only player in history to win three Fifa World Cups (1958, 1962 and 1970). Even now, the kids who dream of growing up to be the next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo know his name. Messi overtook his record as the top scorer for a single club last month with his 644th goal for Barca, one more than Pele scored for Santos.
Active players
Lionel Messi (ARG)
• Total goals: 742
• Total matches: 947
• Years active: 2003-present
The diminutive star has spent his entire senior career at Barcelona and is the main rival to Ronaldo’s crown as the greatest active player — some even consider the duo as greater than Pele and Messi’s compatriot Diego Maradona. Messi holds the record of most goals (644) for a single club in history along with various other landmarks, such as most combined goals and assists and six Ballon d’Ors.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic (SWE)
• Total goals: 565
• Total matches: 945
• Years active: 1999-present
The outspoken Swede is famous as much for his off-field antics as he is for his goalscoring prowess. The veteran is still banging in goals for AC Milan and has played for some of the top clubs across Europe during his career including Ajax, Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, AC Milan (twice), Paris St-Germain, Manchester United. He even squeezed a stint with LA Galaxy in the American MLS. A gargantuan 62 goals in 116 matches for Sweden makes him his nation’s top scorer amid rumours of a comeback from retirement for the Euros this summer.
Today, the best player in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo … It is a question that is difficult to answer. We cannot forget about Zico, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. And in Europe, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff. Now, it’s not my fault, but I think Pelé was better than them all.
Still going strong
Ronaldo is way out in front at the top of the goalscoring charts for active players as his 758 strikes has him well clear of Barcelona’s star playmaker Lionel Messi (742) and AC Milan veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who sits third on 565 goals.
The Portuguese star made a name for himself when he shone in a match for Lisbon side Sporting against Manchester United, prompting then coach Alex Ferguson to swoop for the teenager in 2003. Champions League medals for United (1) and Real Madrid (4) followed alongside many league and cup titles, and he took his career haul of major club titles to 28 while at his present club — Juventus. He has also won the European Championships and Nations League with Portugal.
On Sunday, Ronaldo’s first-half strike marked the 15th consecutive season he has plundered 20 goals for club and country, in a career that has included many trophy-laden years at Manchester United and Real Madrid before his move to the Italian giants Juve.
At the international level, the Portuguese has 102 goals in 120 appearances and is only seven goals behind all-time leader Ali Daei of Iran.
Ronaldo’s dates with destiny
When Cristiano Ronaldo moved from his beloved Real Madrid to Juventus in 2018, it summed up the Portuguese star’s ambition to push himself further and harder than us mere mortals as he chose to move on from Spain — where he won every domestic and European footballing title available, and attempt to continue his domination in new pastures in Italy. Gulf News takes back at his glittering journey from Madeira to Turin, via Manchester and Madrid.
2002: It was 19 years ago that a young unknown kid named Cristiano Ronaldo made his debut for Sporting in Portugal at the age of 17 — and he began a long, storied journey, scoring two goals against Moreirense.
2003: Having impressed against Manchester United in a Champions League game for Lisbon, Ronaldo moved to Old Trafford after boss Alex Ferguson made it his mission to secure the signature of the precocious talent.
2006: Ronaldo was already an established player in the Portugal national set-up, and the 2006 World Cup in Germany saw his side lose out to France in the semi-finals. Ronaldo made no friends back in his adopted homeland as he got Manchester United teammate Wayne Rooney sent off in the quarter-final against England — and gave him a cheeky wink as he left the field.
2007: Ronaldo was truly a world beater now as he finished the season as the top scorer in the Premier League and won his first league title with United.
2008: It was back-to-back championships in England as Ronaldo scored an astonishing 31 goals in 34 games, with 42 in all competitions. He played his part in a famous double that season as United also marched to the Champions League title, beating fellow Premier League side Chelsea on penalties in the final in Moscow. Ronaldo was crowned the world’s best player as he beat Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Liverpool striker Fernando Torres to the Ballon d’Or.
2009: Ronaldo departed Manchester for Real Madrid in a then-world-record £80 million move.
2012: It took three years, but Ronaldo became a permanent Real hero when he scored the winner against Barcelona in el clasico as Real won the La Liga title.
2014: Ronaldo helped Real become champions of Europe once again, putting the icing on the cake with a strike in the comfortable win over Atletico Madrid back where it all began in Lisbon.
2015: Another year, another landmark as Ronaldo broke Raul’s goalscoring record for Real Madrid (323) with a strike against Levante.
2016: It was becoming a habit now. Champions League winner yet again. But there was an even bigger achievement as Ronaldo helped Portugal to an elusive European Championship title. They won the final 1-0 against France after extra time, but Ronaldo left the field in tears with an injury after only 25 minutes.
2017: The records tumbled as Ronaldo netted a hat-trick against Bayern Munich to become the first player to score 100 goals in the Champions League. Real also won their first La Liga title in five. Next up was 600 career goals in just 855 matches and yet another Champions League trophy, beating Juventus in the final. Ronaldo also picked up his fifth Ballon d’Or.
2018: Four Champions League titles in five years as Real again defeated Juve in the final — with Ronaldo scoring a sensational overhead kick goal.
2018: Ronaldo finally moved to Juventus, where he would lead them to Serie A glory in his first season, and signalling many more titles to come — including the Global Soccer Awards Player of the Year gong in Dubai.
2021: A second Serie A title followed in the coronavirus-interrupted 2019-20 season, before netting his landmark 758th goal against Udinese on January 4.
Ronaldo advances the beautiful game, but will there be more like him?
Marwa Hamad, Senior Reporter
It’s history in the making. Cristiano Ronaldo is the second-highest goalscorer of all time. With 758 goals to his name, the 35-year-old Portuguese star has now surpassed Pele’s official tally of 757 goals — and can start eying Bican’s ‘official’ total of 759 goals (statistics are a bit sketchy as records from the 1930s are under debate).
But as much as it’s a massive achievement on paper, another statistic to hold proudly, it also offers a moment of nostalgic reflection.
Pele is considered the father of modern football. Known for his beautiful, zealous, graceful style of play — inspiring football to become known as ‘the beautiful game’ — Pele overcame huge obstacles to even make it onto the pitch. Unable to afford a football as a child, he practised with a stuffed sock. At only 17 in 1958, he helped Brazil win their first ever World Cup, announcing his presence on the world stage: he was here, and he was here to stay.
Cristiano really liked winning … When that didn’t happen, Ronaldo cried. So much so that he had the nickname ‘crybaby’
But of course, nothing is forever in football.
Since his retirement in 1977, however, Pele has been an outspoken fan of Ronaldo. Just last year, he called him the “best player in the world”.
Ronaldo’s youth teammate, Ricardo Santos, recalled this about him as a child: “Cristiano really liked winning … When that didn’t happen, Ronaldo cried. So much so that he had the nickname ‘crybaby’ … I don’t remember exactly how many he scored, but he was almost always our best scorer … I remember a game back then that we played in Camara de Lobos. We were winning 3-0, Cristiano Ronaldo went off injured and we lost 4-3.”
So it comes as no surprise, really, that Ronaldo is still the goalscoring machine he’s always strived to be.
One might assume, a bit sentimentally, that Pele is uniquely lucky in his position to see someone like Ronaldo overtake him. Because not only did Pele live to accomplish these unforgettable things — setting long-standing, world-shattering records and making his country proud — but he now lives long enough to see the next generation of ferocious players take the beautiful game to new heights. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? The passion doesn’t start nor end with one or two all-time greats. The game evolves, grows, takes new shapes and forms, but holds onto the same beating heart.
Today, the never-ending debate is between Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. It’s amplified by social media fan accounts posting graphics that juxtapose their achievements and endless back-and-forth streams of the GOAT (greatest of all Time) emoji. In the 1980s, it was the fierce rivalry between Pele and Diego Maradona (despite Pele having already retired) that would sweep headlines and fill pub corners with heated disputes.
So one can only hope that, 40 years from now, we’ll have another pair of electrifying players competing to be the best, perhaps surpassing today’s heroes altogether.
As for Messi, he last month reached 644 goals for Barcelona, making him the player with the most goals scored for a single club — surpassing Pele for this title.
And while Pele may very well be happy for both Messi and Ronaldo, there’s still a bit of bite to the ever-smiling Brazilian icon. Asked last year who he thought was the best footballer out there, he had this to say: “Today, the best player in the world is Cristiano Ronaldo … It is a question that is difficult to answer. We cannot forget about Zico, Ronaldinho and Ronaldo. And in Europe, Franz Beckenbauer and Johan Cruyff. Now, it’s not my fault, but I think Pelé was better than them all.”
Noticeably omitting his rival Maradona from the list, Pele still found himself on top. And even with some of his records being broken today, you’d be hard-pressed to argue with the man, who makes up a massive chunk of many fans’ childhoods and defined much of what we’ve come to love about football today.
Yesterday, it was Pele’s world. Today, it’s Ronaldo’s day to bask. But the history books, with great luck, will have more than enough space for a few more footballing legends to come.
