Could Cristiano Ronaldo score 1,000 goals in his career? When could he reach that milestone?

Cristiano Ronaldo scored again as Al Nassr lost to former Real Madrid teammate Nachos Al Qadsiah on Friday in the Saudi Pro League, taking his career mark to 911 goals.

A lot has been changed whether Portugal’s captain can reach 1,000 goals in professional senior footballalthough he himself recently played down that suggestion, claiming he “lived in the moment” and “didn’t think long term”. At the same time, he has previously publicly disclosed his desire to reach 1,000 goals…

You don’t have to be a mathematician to train Ronaldo is currently 89 goals shy of that goalwhich doesn’t seem like much given his consistently incredible scoring rate. But the five-time Ballon d’Or winner will turns 40 in Februaryso should we expect said rate to continue? There is little sign of him slowing down.

Could Cristiano Ronaldo realistically score 1,000 goals?

Since starting at Sporting Lisbon in 2002, Ronaldo has scored 911 goals in 1,252 appearances for club and country, a rate of approx 0.73 per game. To find the web a further 89 times at that rate he had to play 122 more games to reach the milestone.

Another approach is to consider only his goalscoring form since his move to Al Nassrwhere he looks set to stay unless something drastic happens. From the beginning of 2023 onwards Ronaldo has scored 92 goals in 107 games (75 out of 86 for Al Nassr, 17 out of 21 for Portugal). Using that rate (0.86 per game), he would only need to play 104 more games to get to 1,000.

Using a slightly different – and simpler – metric, the numbers claimed are almost identical to those he has registered since January 2023. So if he continues in the same direction, he can reach four figures sometime around the end of August 2026 (in one year and nine months, the same period it took him to score 88 goals after joining Al Nassr).

It would take him well past his 42nd birthday. But since he has declared that he will never retire from international football and he’s already so close that it’s definitely a target worth chasing.

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