Cristiano Ronaldo’s Ridiculous Statistics After Achieving the Ultimate Scoring Feat
When Cristiano Ronaldo scored his first goal of Thursday’s 5–3 win over Al Kholood, he looked mildly annoyed after finally finding the back of the net after two early efforts were disallowed. Within a quarter-hour, he was a picture of vein-popping ecstasy.
In the space of 15 second-half minutes, Ronaldo scored three times, sweeping in two cutbacks with his left and right foot on either side of a towering header. The act of converting with each part of his body saw Ronaldo achieve that rarest of feat in soccer: a perfect hat trick.
Even for a figure as goal-laden as world soccer’s most prolific player of all time, this unique type of treble is still hard to come by. Of all the hat tricks which Ronaldo has scored for club and country, only 11 have been “perfect.”
Every Perfect Hat Trick in Ronaldo’s Career
2011: Real Madrid 4–2 Villarreal (La Liga)
2011: Real Madrid 4–0 Getafe (La Liga)
2013: Real Madrid 4–0 Getafe (La Liga)
2015: Espanyol 1–4 Real Madrid (La Liga)
2016: Real Madrid 6–0 Espanyol (La Liga)
2016: Portugal 6–0 Andorra (WC Qualifier)
2017: Real Madrid 4–2 Bayern Munich (Champions League QF)
2018: Real Madrid 5–2 Real Sociedad (La Liga)
2021: Cagliari 1–3 Juventus (Serie A)
2024: Al Nassr 6–0 Al Wehda (Saudi Pro League)
2026: Al Nassr 5–3 Al Kholood (Saudi Pro League)
It’s been an intriguing few weeks for Ronaldo. After storming out of Portugal’s international camp, the 41-year-old endured a ruinous return to club action, delivering one of his most wasteful performances of the season against NEOM. Ronaldo had not yet scored a league goal since falling out spectacularly with Jorge Jesus and threatened to have another night to forget on Thursday.
Ronaldo first had the ball in the net inside 10 minutes only for VAR to intervene and spot that he had strayed offside. The forward, whose famous work ethic was questioned by his ex-Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag earlier this month, also failed to time his run on the cusp of halftime.
The floodgates would open for Ronaldo from the 66th minute onward as he wrote another chapter in his remarkable array of scoring statistics.
This was the 67th hat trick of Ronaldo’s career—37 of which have come since his 30th birthday. For comparison, the freshly crowned Ballon d’Or winner Harry Kane has ‘only’ scored 31 hat tricks across his entire senior career.
Ronaldo already stands out on his own as the recognized top scorer in professional soccer, but he has a clear target left to hit.
When Will Ronaldo Crack 1,000 Goals?
“I want to reach 1,000 goals,” Ronaldo declared in 2024. “If I don’t have any injuries, this for me is the most important.”
The veteran forward’s latest treble took him up to 985 for club and country, just 15 shy of that remarkable feat of four digits. Ronaldo would not be the first player to ever claim 1,000 goals—the legendary Brazilian forward Pelé is lauded by the Guinness World Records as having scored 1,279 career goals in 1,363 games. Yet, many of those occured in what would now be considered unofficial competitions. FIFA, world soccer’s governing body, lists Pelé’s final count at 767.
Al Nassr have 23 league matches remaining this season as well as at least six more fixtures in the first round of the AFC Champions League plus the next round of the King’s Cup. That’s a minimum of 30 club games before Ronaldo’s international duties are taken into consideration.
It remains to be seen how many minutes Jesus will afford his squabbling talisman but the expectation is that Ronaldo will be back in the international setup after accepting his pitiful fine. Portugal have two more Nations League matches in November and could be involved in the two-legged quarterfinals next March before the final tournament in June.
If Ronaldo maintains his remarkable fitness record to feature in the majority of these fixtures he would only need to score roughly one goal every other game to crack 1,000. Given his current average of one goal every 120 minutes for Al Nassr, he could conceivably have the record wrapped up by next spring.
