Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 700th club career goal in Manchester United‘s 2-1 win over Everton on Sunday night, making him the first player to ever do so.
This is just one of many other goalscoring records CR7 has to his name over a 20-year playing career and while Erling Haaland might be the biggest goal machine in Manchester right now – or anywhere for that matter – Ronaldo’s longevity is rather incredible.
First up, let’s deal with his most recent landmark: 700 club goals.
Ronaldo started out his career at Sporting Lisbon, netting just five before being snapped up by Man United the first time around where he went on to score 84 goals.
Then came Real Madrid, where he etched himself into history with a whopping 292 goals in 311 games. He spent nearly a decade in the Spanish capital before moving to Juventus, where he scored 81 goals in just under a century of appearances.
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After returning to Old Trafford last year, he scored his 144th goal for United over two spells on Sunday. This is how he did it:
The Ronaldo vs Messi debate is one that will never be settled but while many may feel the latter is the more gifted footballer overall, you can’t argue with numbers and 140 goals to Messi’s 127 in the Champions League is a gap we don’t see being closed any time soon.
We certainly don’t expect anybody to score a better one than this:
OH. MY. WORD! 😱
Cristiano Ronaldo with an outrageous overhead kick!
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 3, 2018
Most international goals
Doing it in the big European games is one thing but there is no bigger stage than representing your country at an international tournament and Ronaldo has been Portugal’s hero and top goalscorer for years.
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He became their leading goalscorer all the way back in 2014 before going on to break Ferenc Puskás’ European record of 84 national-team goals at the 2018 World Cup. He now sits on 117 goals for his country, the most of any male player — no matter how many time Pele tries to move the goalposts.
Here’s just 10 of them:
Cristiano Ronaldo is Portugal’s all-time top scorer with 99 goals to date 🇵🇹
It seems there is no number too big for the Portuguese star and even at 37, he is still scoring goals at the highest level and he hit the professional pinnacle not long after returning to United last season.
On 12 March, 2021, Ronaldo broke Joseph Bican’s record nearly 70-year-old record of 805 competitive goals with a hattrick against Spurs that very much rolled back the years and stamped his name even deeper into the history books.
With the veteran now off the mark for the Premier League season, we expect there’ll be more to come. No matter his age, how many minutes he gets or well he plays, Cristiano Ronaldo scoring goals is just a fact of life.
There will inevitably come a time when someone will take his goalscoring crown — and we have a feeling it might a certain blonde-haired individual across the other side of Manchester — but on this, it feels like Messi will always come second to Ronaldo as the greatest goalscorer of all-time
Erling Haaland breaks yet another goalscoring record in the Champions League
Danny Jones
Erling Haaland is back to business as per usual, a.k.a. breaking records left, right and centre — this time in the Champions League following Manchester City’s incredible comeback against RB Leipzig.
Haaland was one of three different names on the scoresheet during their 3-2 win over the Bundesliga side along with Stockport’s very own Phil Foden and fellow striker Julián Álvarez, and while both are becoming increasingly more prolific, it was the big blonde bagsman who got them on their way.
Scoring in the 54th minute to get things moving, the Norwegian number nine notched what was his 40th goal in the Champions League, becoming the quickest player to do so in just 35 games.
To put that in context of where he already ranks amongst the great goalscorers of years gone by, not only did he manage 40 goals in 35 appearances in the UCL but he also did it in a whole 10 games fewer than the next fastest, Manchester United legend Ruud van Nistelrooy. Unreal.
To be honest, Haaland broke so many records in his first year at the Etihad — such as most goals by a Man City player in a single campaign, most goals in a Premier League season and fastest to player to reach three hattricks, just to name a few — nothing really surprise us anymore.
Now on 19 goals and four assists all told in the opening 20 games of 23/24 and well on course for a second consecutive golden boot, while we’ll have to wait and see if he can equal or better his incredible tally of 63 goal contributions in all competitions, if there’s anyone that can do it’s him.
Haaland’s inevitability and Pep Guardiola‘s other in-form forwards resulted in the Blues not only securing qualification for the knockout stages but a top spot finish in their group after already putting a whole six points between them and the German team with a game to spare.
As for domestically, the treble-winners will hope to put last weekend’s 1-1 draw against title rivals Liverpool behind them and notch a victory over Spurs whose impressive start to the season is now begin to stutter following a number of injuries and dip in form.
City sit in second place on 29 points and just one point behind league leaders Arsenal who face Wolves on Saturday after their own Champions League fixture against RC Lens on Wednesday night.
It’s neck and neck as we barrel towards the Christmas period and, from a neutrals point of view, that’s what we love to see.
You can watch the full highlights of City’s fightback against Leipzig down below:
Featured Images — Man City (via Instagram)/Erling Haaland (via X)
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Alejandro Garnacho gives the same boots he scored his overhead kick with to a young Man United fan
Danny Jones
As if Manchester United supporters weren’t already ridiculously enamoured with their exciting young starlet, Alejandro Garnacho made an incredible gesture to a young fan after gifting him a pair of the very same boots he scored his incredible overhead kick with this past weekend.
In case you somehow missed it on Sunday, Garnacho scored one of the great Premier League, perhaps one of the best we’ve ever seen full stop, after burying an unbelievably beautiful bicycle kick into the far corner during Man United’s 3-0 win over Everton.
The 19-year-old is already a firm favourite amongst United fans and is tipped to do big things in his career after impressing in the first couple of years of his senior career, but interactions with wide-eyed little fans like this prove exactly why he has become so loved so quickly.
Surprising the die-hard young fans, the Standley boys — simply known as Harry and George to thousands of followers across multiple social media channels run by their parents — Garnacho doesn’t just stop to say hello to the loyal little Reds, he gives George a pair of the exact Nike Mercurial boots he wore when he screamed home that unforgettable finish. As you can expect, it blows his tiny mind.
After telling the Argentine winger that his overhead kick was “the best goal [he’d] ever seen“, Garnacho then hands his smiley superfan an orange Nike box containing the boots through the window, to which he immediately replies that he “asked for these” for Christmas this year.
We were very much the same at your age, George — Christmas and birthdays were all about getting all the gear to convince our mates we were the next Rooney.
Revealing not only that they were the very same boots he was wearing when he leapt like a salmon for that now iconic overhead kick but that he had already signed his autograph on them, along with a personal message on the box it didn’t take long for the seven-year-old to start crying tears of joy at his out of the blue birthday present.
As mum continues to capture his reaction, George simply says, “I’m so happy”, before telling his footballing hero how much he loves him and calling him “the best in the world”. It is by no means the first time we’ve stumbled across the two very cute little kids.
This is also isn’t George and Garnacho’s first meeting either; far from it, as both he and his older brother Harry regularly wait outside Carrington and Old Trafford to meet their Man United idols — with the exciting youngster having been at the top of the list since he burst onto the scene.
Whilst the pair are also self-proclaimed Lisandro Martinez and Jadon Sancho superfans, over the past season or so in particular, Garnacho and George have developed a real bond and he has had the opportunity to meet the no.17 on a number of occasions.
We will never, EVER get tired of seeing little kids meeting their heroes — fair play to the young man for taking the time to make the little lad a day he’ll never forget. Happy birthday, George!
You can watch the highlights from the Red Devils’ away win against Everton down below. Any excuse to watch back that goal, to be honest.
Danny Jones -
10th October 2022 
