Cristiano Ronaldo scored the 900th goal of his illustrious career on Thursday night for Portugal – and the 39-year-old Al-Nassr striker doesn’t plan on stopping there

Cristiano Ronaldo said he was far from done after notching the 900th goal of his career in Portugal’s win over Croatia on Thursday night.

Ronaldo broke down in tears after prodding a Nuno Mendes cross past goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic to put his side 2-1 up in the 34th minute. His strike came after a goal at both ends from Manchester United full-back Diogo Dalot and helped Portugal open their Nations League campaign with a win.

The 39-year-old ran to the corner flag where he was overcome with emotion as his team-mates joined him to celebrate. He now has a staggering 131 goals for Portugal to go with his 769 club goals, meaning he’s reached the landmark of 900.

Brazil legend Pele claimed to have notched over 1,000 goals in his glittering career, but many were unrecorded. Ronaldo, who is currently 62 goals ahead of his long-term rival Lionel Messi ’s tally of 838, therefore believes he has made history.

“I dreamed of this, and I have more dreams. Thank you all!” he wrote as a caption to a short video posted on social media which showed some of his goals over the years for United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Al-Nassr. It said “History of football rewritten” and ended with a quote from Ronaldo which said: “I don’t follow the records, the records follow me”.

At the age of 39 and now playing in the Saudi Pro League, there have been some suggestions that Ronaldo might be winding down his career. He failed to score in five games for Portugal at Euro 2024 and his manager Roberto Martinez has constantly had to defend his ageing forward.

But speaking to his former United team-mate Rio Ferdinand recently, Ronaldo said: “Soon I will do 900 and after that it will be 1,000″. Asked how old he will be when he hits that milestone, he replied: “41, I don’t know. If I don’t have injuries, that is most important, I want that. My challenge is to reach 1,000 goals, with one difference – all the goals that I score will have video. So I can prove that.”

Ronaldo scored 450 goals – exactly half of his tally of 900 goals – at Real Madrid, where he played during his peak from 2009 to 2018. He has been with Al-Nassr since January 2023, where he has continued to plunder goals, and it seems he is happy to see out the remainder of his time in Saudi Arabia.

“I don’t know if I will retire soon, in two or three years… but probably I will retire here at Al-Nassr,” he said recently. “I’m very happy at this club, I feel good in this country too. I’m happy to play in Saudi Arabia and I want to continue.”

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