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DPA
Berlin
“Unparalleled” screamed the front page headline of Wednesday’s A Bola sports
paper as his native Portugal and the global football community hailed Cristiano Ronaldo’s century of national team goals.
Former team-mates led the praise, with Deco naming Ronaldo “a dazzling phenomenon” as he spoke of “a milestone of a monster.” Nani said publicy to Ronaldo: “It’s a fantastic feat, something normal for you. For me, it gives me enormous pride to be part of your story. The story of the greatest of all time.”
And Nuno Gomes added: “It was a pleasure to have been your team-mate, and you’re the pride of all Portuguese.” A curling free-kick into the top left corner and a brilliant chip from the edge of the area into the top right corner saw Ronaldo reach the landmark with now 101 Portugal strikes in a 2-0 victory over hosting Sweden in Solna.
The 35-year-old Juventus forward reached the mark in his 165th cap and 16 years after his first international goal in a 2-1 defeat against Greece in the Euro 2004 opener, an injury-time header set up by Luis Figo.
Only long retired Iranian Ali Daei has scored more national team goals with 109 but Ronaldo will surely set his sights of reaching that milestone as well, given that he has shown no intention of retiring and the delayed Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup not far away.
“I am really happy. First of all because the team won. And obviously I am very happy to have reached 100 and then 101 with two great goals,” Ronaldo said.
“Only God knows what will happen in the future. I feel good, I feel happy to have the chance to play with these young players. I am enjoying a lot this moment both individually and collectively.
“I managed to get past that milestone of 100 goals and now there’s the record. It is not about becoming obsessed by it because I think records tend to just come along naturally.”
The five-time World Footballer of the Year is Champions League top scorer with 130 goals, 15 more than Argentine Lionel Messi. He has won the elite event five times, once with Manchester United and four times with Real Madrid where he left in 2018 as the Spanish giant’s all-time leading scorer with 451 goals during his nine years there.
Ronaldo’s merits also include 18 domestic titles with Sporting Lisbon, United, Real and Juve while national team success only came late for the long-time Portugal captain.
The team lost again to Greece in the final of Euro 2004 and came fourth at the 2006 World Cup before Portugal finally lifted a first major trophy at Euro 2016 (with Ronaldo limping off injured and in tears in the final against France) and a second one in the inaugural Nations League 2018-19.
The world governing body FIFA was quick to showcase his international goals after his
Tuesday’s feat.
He scored 84 of his goals in non-friendly games, 61 of them in World Cup and Euro qualifiers, and 30 in all in the final
15 minutes of games.
Ronaldo’s status as a complete player showed as he scored 55 goals with his right foot, 22 with the left and 24 with the head.
The 101 goals include seven hat-tricks (two of them against Lithuania), and four goals once against minnows Andorra.
“Some players don’t even get 100 goals in their whole career. This isn’t even about your club goals, this is just the national team.
It’s crazy,” Ronaldo’s former Manchester United team-mate Rio Ferdinand tweeted.
While only 10 goals came from direct free-kicks, team-mate Bruno Fernandes was nonetheless not surprised that Ronaldo’s 100th came from such a set piece.
“Yesterday he scored six or seven like that in training and today it went exactly the same way. It’s so good to have Cristiano on the team!” Fernandes said.
Berlin
“Unparalleled” screamed the front page headline of Wednesday’s A Bola sports
paper as his native Portugal and the global football community hailed Cristiano Ronaldo’s century of national team goals.
Former team-mates led the praise, with Deco naming Ronaldo “a dazzling phenomenon” as he spoke of “a milestone of a monster.” Nani said publicy to Ronaldo: “It’s a fantastic feat, something normal for you. For me, it gives me enormous pride to be part of your story. The story of the greatest of all time.”
And Nuno Gomes added: “It was a pleasure to have been your team-mate, and you’re the pride of all Portuguese.” A curling free-kick into the top left corner and a brilliant chip from the edge of the area into the top right corner saw Ronaldo reach the landmark with now 101 Portugal strikes in a 2-0 victory over hosting Sweden in Solna.
The 35-year-old Juventus forward reached the mark in his 165th cap and 16 years after his first international goal in a 2-1 defeat against Greece in the Euro 2004 opener, an injury-time header set up by Luis Figo.
Only long retired Iranian Ali Daei has scored more national team goals with 109 but Ronaldo will surely set his sights of reaching that milestone as well, given that he has shown no intention of retiring and the delayed Euro 2020 and the 2022 World Cup not far away.
“I am really happy. First of all because the team won. And obviously I am very happy to have reached 100 and then 101 with two great goals,” Ronaldo said.
“Only God knows what will happen in the future. I feel good, I feel happy to have the chance to play with these young players. I am enjoying a lot this moment both individually and collectively.
“I managed to get past that milestone of 100 goals and now there’s the record. It is not about becoming obsessed by it because I think records tend to just come along naturally.”
The five-time World Footballer of the Year is Champions League top scorer with 130 goals, 15 more than Argentine Lionel Messi. He has won the elite event five times, once with Manchester United and four times with Real Madrid where he left in 2018 as the Spanish giant’s all-time leading scorer with 451 goals during his nine years there.
Ronaldo’s merits also include 18 domestic titles with Sporting Lisbon, United, Real and Juve while national team success only came late for the long-time Portugal captain.
The team lost again to Greece in the final of Euro 2004 and came fourth at the 2006 World Cup before Portugal finally lifted a first major trophy at Euro 2016 (with Ronaldo limping off injured and in tears in the final against France) and a second one in the inaugural Nations League 2018-19.
The world governing body FIFA was quick to showcase his international goals after his
Tuesday’s feat.
He scored 84 of his goals in non-friendly games, 61 of them in World Cup and Euro qualifiers, and 30 in all in the final
15 minutes of games.
Ronaldo’s status as a complete player showed as he scored 55 goals with his right foot, 22 with the left and 24 with the head.
The 101 goals include seven hat-tricks (two of them against Lithuania), and four goals once against minnows Andorra.
“Some players don’t even get 100 goals in their whole career. This isn’t even about your club goals, this is just the national team.
It’s crazy,” Ronaldo’s former Manchester United team-mate Rio Ferdinand tweeted.
While only 10 goals came from direct free-kicks, team-mate Bruno Fernandes was nonetheless not surprised that Ronaldo’s 100th came from such a set piece.
“Yesterday he scored six or seven like that in training and today it went exactly the same way. It’s so good to have Cristiano on the team!” Fernandes said.
