He is a man who has racked up over €200 million in transfer fees, won the Ballon d’Or on five occasions and has countless other honours to his name.
Now, he is in Serie A. After Juventus swooped to sign Real Madrid icon Cristiano Ronaldo on a four-year deal, one of the greatest players ever to lace up a pair of boots will ply his trade in Italian football.
We take a closer look at his career statistics and why fans of the Bianconeri can rightly be excited about their newest acquisition.
A goalscoring machine
Throughout his career to this point, Ronaldo is averaging a staggering 0.72 goals per game, having netted a total of 658 professional goals.
He has broken goalscoring records for both his national team and Real Madrid and there is no competition that he has taken part in for any side in which he has not scored.
There is also a very even distribution when it comes to his scoring exploits and although the majority (416) have been scored with his favoured right foot, he also has 123 with his ‘weaker’ foot and 117 with his head.
Tiring defenders beware
No greater portion of Ronaldo’s goals come than in the final period of matches.
As defences tire, he grows in stature and an incredible 158 goals have came in the 76th minute or later.
Hotshots always end up in Italy
The list of the top five players who have scored the most goals across Europe’s top five leagues since Ronaldo’s move to Real in 2009 features a common trend: all but one have now played for an Italian team.
With 311 goals, Juventus’ Ronaldo is second on the list. In third is former Palermo and Napoli man Edinson Cavani with 207.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic is fourth on 188 and scored goals for both Milan clubs and Juventus, while Napoli and Juventus fans enjoyed the goals of Gonzalo Higuain, who is fifth on 186.
Will top marksman Lionel Messi (329) be next?
A man for the major European occasion
There is no doubt about it, Cristiano Ronaldo relishes those big European nights, as Juventus found out in Turin earlier this season in the Champions League when he scored arguably the greatest goal in the competition’s history.
What cannot be argued about though is just how good he is in that competition and why he may be the man to finally end Juventus’ long wait for success in it.
He is the all-time top scorer in the tournament with 120 goals and has lifted the big-eared trophy on five occasions, four with Real Madrid and once with Manchester United.
In 2013/14, he set the record for most goals in a single edition of the Champions League with 17 and has the competition’s longest successive scoring streak, having netted in 11 straight games.
Interestingly, his biggest Champions League victims are also Juventus, with 10 goals against them. So the best way to stop Ronaldo may simply be to buy him.
Source: forzaitalianfootball.com