Cristiano Ronaldo’s latest move to Saudi Arabian outfit Al-Nassr may have jeopardized his chances to increase his Champions League goal tally for good. However, he is still the leading goalscorer in the most prestigious and coveted club competition in the world. Ronaldo’s UCL tenure was borderline wild and scary. The Portuguese holds an insane record of Champions League away goals.
Cristiano Ronaldo has been scoring goals for more than 20 years now, which is unheard of in soccer. Especially considering he is a forward and has played a major part of his career as a left winger. He started as a tricky winger in Sporting Lisbon and caught the eyes of the iconic Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson in a friendly.
Ronaldo arrived in England with the pressure to bear the empty number 7 shirt of England’s David Beckham. And boy did he deliver. It took him time to become a goalscoring winger. But when he started scoring, he became unstoppable. Cristiano moved to Real Madrid in 2009 with a record $100 million transfer fee from United and to this day, that deal is considered a bargain.
Ronaldo is sitting at the top of the UEFA Champions League goalscoring chart with 140 goals in 183 appearances. Astonishingly enough, Cristiano didn’t score his first UCL goal till his 27th match in the competition. Since then, he has managed to become the most decorated player in the history of the tournament by winning the trophy a stunning five times.
How many UCL away goals has Cristiano Ronaldo scored?
It is not a secret that Cristiano Ronaldo is the media’s favorite target. It is maybe because Cristiano is a bit more reactive than other soccer players. He generally doesn’t snub any question and tends to answer it with sarcasm or facts. However, it has always been pretty evident that Ronaldo’s favorite way to answer his critics is on the pitch.
The story goes back to the 2015-16 season. It was the first and away leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie between Real Madrid and Roma. Ronaldo attended the pre-match press conference with the manager Zinedine Zidane. A journalist asked Ronaldo why he hasn’t been scoring goals in away matches. Ronaldo questioned the journalist back, “Since I arrived in Spain, name me one player who has more UCL away goals than me.”
remember when an interviewer asked ronaldo about his away goals and he shut him up off and on the pitch? 🥶🥶 pic.twitter.com/3LzIp12D6b
— aurora (@cr7stianos) February 7, 2023
The reporter was silent. Ronaldo added to it by saying, “you cannot,” and left the press conference by saying, ”Thank You! Bye.” Zidane’s smile at Ronaldo’s reaction was priceless. Later that night he scored an amazing goal against Roma. Ronaldo received a pass from Marcelo in the left wing, and Florenzi was running with him. Ronaldo did his trademark ‘Ronaldo-chop’ cut inside and put the ball in the top right corner of the Roma goal.
Cristiano has a total of 62 UCL away goals, 13 ahead of his eternal rival Lionel Messi. He scored 48 of those 62 goals in his nine-year spell at Real Madrid. And adding another stat to Ronaldo’s 2015-16 UCL season. He had 20 goal contributions in 12 UCL matches with 16 goals and 4 assists.
Conclusively, we can say that Ronaldo has always answered his critics throughout his ridiculously long and unbelievably consistent career. His answer on and off the pitch against Roma is just another example of that.
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