Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 96th, 97th and 98th goals against Lithuania in a Euro 2020 qualifying match for Portugal. All competitions combined since the beginning of his career, FC Juventus' favourite player has scored a total of 720 goals: a real goal-scoring machine.
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And when you approach these kinds of indecent statistics, you necessarily have to refer to the first of his kind, the one and only, Pelé, widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time.
While his staggering total of 1283 goals is still being debated today, the Brazilian legend does not hesitate to use his statistics as proof of his eternal domination. In December 2000, Pelé and Maradona shared the prize of FIFA Player of the Century by FIFA. Since Maradona was winning the Internet poll, it was decided he and Pelé should share the award.
Asked by the Spanish news agency EFE, Pelé even had fun challenging Cristiano Ronaldo.
'I wish him good luck, because he has already scored a lot of goals. I hope he will have the health and strength to reach 1283 goals, which is my record. But let's wait and see!'
At 34 years old and 563 goals behind, Cristiano Ronaldo will have trouble beating his elder. Ronaldo scored his first goal of the 2019–20 season for Juventus in a 4–3 home win over Napoli in Serie A on 31 August 2019.
Come one CR7, you can do it! We believe in you!
