Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 900th career goal, but the Portugal captain claimed he is haunted by records.
Ronaldo scored his landmark goal in the 34th minute of Thursday s Nations League contest between Portugal and Croatia in Lisbon.
The 39-year-old s close-range finish, his 131st goal for Portugal, was enough to secure a 2-1 win for Roberto Martinez s team, who went ahead through Diogo Dalot, although the full-back then scored an own goal that dragged Croatia back into proceedings.
Ronaldo was taken off late on to a standing ovation, and speaking to Portuguese media, he said: It was an exciting goal for me. It s a round number.
Only I know how hard it is to work every day to score your 900th goal.
It s a unique milestone in my career. I don t break records… they haunt me!
Ronaldo let the emotions out after scoring, and seemed to be in tears of joy while celebrating.
As you know, I m already 39 and a half years old and so you have to be very focused for things to go well, he explained. To be at this level requires a lot of dedication.
So, when these little records happen, small, big, I get emotional because I know and value what I do, and my teammates, because obviously without my team-mates this would be unthinkable.
900 Cristiano Ronaldo has now netted 900 goals in his senior career for club and country:
Real Madrid 450
Manchester United 145
Portugal 131
Juventus 101
Al-Nassr 68
Sporting CP – 5
Preposterous.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe)
Ronaldo endured a difficult Euro 2024 campaign, failing to score from 24 shots, including a penalty that was saved by Jan Oblak.
Portugal eventually crashed out to France on penalties, and Ronaldo stressed the importance of getting off to a good start, and complimented Martinez s change in approach.
After what happened in the European Championship, we had to give a good response and that s what happened, he said.
We played well. Croatia fought really well and I think it was a spectacular game.
I felt freer than usual in this game. The coach also gave me that opportunity and we also played, in my opinion, a little differently to how we played in the European Championship.
We made a lot of changes, the players were freer on the pitch and when that happens, it s better for me, I ll be honest.
I feel better, I feel more involved in the game and I can enjoy football more. It s not that I didn t enjoy it at the Euros, but I like being a free player, I like to make space for my team-mates too and today was a performance that the team performed very well.
