Cristiano Ronaldo Now Just 21 Goals Away From 1,000 for His Career

Twenty one goals. That is, for now, the distance separating Cristiano Ronaldo from becoming the first player in history to score 1,000 official goals in competitive matches. Neither Pelé nor Romário, for all they piled up between friendlies and official fixtures, managed to validate that number under the kind of scrutiny modern soccer demands today. Ronaldo is right on the doorstep, and every Al Nassr match has turned into a countdown.

The latest chapter came on September 9, when Al Nassr beat Abha 2-1 and the Portuguese opened the scoring. It was his 979th career goal, arriving right after a scoreless night in the loss to Al Ittihad. Before that, on August 28, he had notched number 978 in a 2-1 win over Al Taawoun, a simple finish that kept his side unbeaten through four matches with four wins.

But if there is one stretch that sums up why this man keeps breaking the mold at age 40, it is what he did with the Portugal national team. On July 2 he converted a penalty for goal number 976, the first of his career in a World Cup knockout match, in a 2-1 win over Croatia in the round of 16. And a few days earlier, on June 23 against Uzbekistan, he delivered a brace (goals 974 and 975) that landed him in the history books: he became the first player ever to score in six different World Cups and passed Eusébio as Portugal's all time leading scorer at the tournament, with 10 World Cup goals. All this came after a scoreless draw against DR Congo that had stirred doubts about his form.

The Title He Had Been Waiting For

There are individual milestones and there are collective joys, and Ronaldo got a taste of the latter too on May 21. Al Nassr thrashed Damac FC 4-1 to be crowned champions of the Saudi Pro League, with Cristiano scoring twice: a free kick from a tight angle and a close range finish that capped off the celebration. Three years after arriving in Saudi Arabia, he finally got to lift his first league title in the country.

The road to a thousand hasn't been a straight line. In February, a brief dispute with the club over the lack of reinforcements in the winter transfer window kept him out of a couple of matches. He came back firing: on February 21, in a 4-0 win over Al Hazem, he scored twice, one of which was nothing less than his 500th goal since turning 30. That same month, against Al Kholood, he added another goal that left him 40 short of the target.

December closed out with Ronaldo staying true to his habit of never letting a year go by without scoring: his goal against Al Qadsiah on January 8 stretched his streak to 24 consecutive years scoring at least one goal on the calendar. And in November he had produced one of the most memorable images of the season: a perfect bicycle kick against Al Khaleej, in the last play of the match, to seal a 4-1 win.

With 979 goals in 1,333 matches, an average of 0.74 per game, the countdown continues. Every penalty, every finish and every cross that ends up in the back of the net brings the Portuguese a little closer to a number that, until not long ago, seemed to belong only to soccer mythology.