724 Goals In 999 Games: Ronaldo Set To Play His 1,000th Career Match

 
Cristiano Ronaldo is set to make the 1,000th senior appearance of his illustrious career when Juventus travel to SPAL in Serie A on Saturday.

The Portugal star has played 835 games in club football and 164 on the international stage, scoring 724 goals in the process.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner's extraordinary career began at Sporting in Lisbon, where he made 31 appearances from 2002 to 2003 before moving to Manchester United, aged 18.

After six years and 292 appearances at United, Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 and remained there until 2018 when he made the switch to Juventus.

Ronaldo really hit his scoring stride in the 2006-07 season when he struck more than 20 goals in a season for the first time. The consistency since then has been nothing short of phenomenal.

Ronaldo has got better with age, particularly at international level. After hitting less than 10 goals per season in his first 10 seasons with Portugal, he has scored 10 or more goals per season in three of the past four seasons.

Who has he scored the most goals for?
Real Madrid have benefited most from Ronaldo's rich form - 450 of his 724 career goals having been scored for the Spanish giants, for whom he made 438 appearances - considerably more than for any other team.

He scored five goals in his 31 games for Sporting, 118 in 292 appearances for Manchester United, 99 in 164 for Portugal and is currently on 52 in 72 for Juventus.

Who has he scored the most goals against?
Of his 724 goals during his career, 27 have come against Sevilla - his favourite opponents.

The English club he has scored the most against in all competitions are Tottenham Hotspur (10).

His first career hat-trick was for Manchester United against Newcastle in a 6-0 win on 12 January 2008.

He has gone on to score 55 further hat-tricks but amazingly that first one was the only time he hit a treble in a match for United.

His latest hat-trick came against Cagliari in a 4-0 win for Juventus on 6 January this year.

1,000th game... or is it?
There is a little caveat in Ronaldo's appearance record.

Two of his 999 games so far were with Sporting B - their reserve team. The first of those actually came after his full debut for the first team.

Before you say those matches do not count, the second string play in the same league system as Primera Liga side Sporting - think of it as like a Liverpool B team playing in League Two - therefore it still counts as senior level football.

But, given Ronaldo did not score in either of those two appearances and discounting them would mean he would in fact bring up his 1,000th game against Juventus' rivals Inter Milan next weekend, maybe the man himself would prefer that they did not count.

He is a player for the big occasions after all...

Ronaldo's landmark moments
When Ronaldo finally decides to retire, he will be able to look back on many happy moments from his career. Here we take a look at some his landmark games.

✓Game one - his Sporting debut
Sporting Lisbon 0-0 Inter Milan - 14 August 2002

✓Game 34 - makes his Manchester United debut
Manchester United 4-0 Bolton Wanderers - 16 August 2003

✓Game 80 - collects first major honour as a player
Manchester United 3-0 Millwall - 22 May 2004

✓Game 83 - first international goal
Portugal 1-2 Greece - 12 June 2004

✓Game 303 - first career hat-trick
Manchester United 6-0 Newcastle - 12 January 2008

✓Game number 393 - opening his account in Madrid
Real Madrid 3-2 Deportivo La Coruna - 29 August 2009

✓Game 518 - a century of Real goals
Lyon 0-2 Real Madrid - 2 November 2011

✓Game 577 - first Champions League hat-trick
Ajax 1-4 Real Madrid - 3 October 2012

✓Game 633 - first Portugal hat-trick
Northern Ireland 2-4 Portugal - 6 September 2013

✓Game 731 - Ronaldo hits five goals in a game
Real Madrid 9-1 Granada - 5 April 2015

✓Game 758 - breaks Raul's Real Madrid scoring record
Real Madrid 3-0 Levante - 17 October 2015

✓Game 849 - becomes first player to score 100 Champions League goals
Real Madrid 4-2 Bayern Munich - 18th April 2017

✓Game 901 - nets his 50th career hat-trick
Real Madrid 6-3 Girona - 18 March 2018

✓Game 921 - Ronaldo opens Juventus account
Juventus 2-1 Sassuolo - 16 September 2018