Always in Messi's shadow? How many goals can Ronaldo score before he retires?

  



The Portuguese superstar, who collected a record fourth European Golden Shoe on Tuesday, claims he is capable of maintaining his current goals per game ratio up to the age of 36

Cristiano Ronaldo is never satisfied. Fresh from collecting a record fourth Golden Shoe on Tuesday the Real Madrid forward insisted he wasn’t done yet - not by a long stretch.

The Real Madrid superstar is on the verge of overtaking Raul as the club’s all-time leading scorer but believes there are still plenty more goals left in his boots - golden or otherwise - and sees no reason why he cannot maintain his current strike rate all the way up to the age of 36 when he plans to retire. 

It is an impossible ask, even for someone of Ronaldo’s superhuman talents, to keep scoring at a rate of 1.04 goals per game. 

But if he were to maintain those standards, how many goals would he finish his Real Madrid career with? Put those calculators away, Goal and Opta have combined forces to find out...



At his current rate, and presuming he suffers no major injuries, Ronaldo would net a total of 625 goals for los Blancos before he eventually hangs up his boots - taking his career tally, including goals at Manchester United and Sporting, to a whopping 748!

"But he'll never maintain those standards," we hear you cry. That's why we have also looked at what would happen if Ronaldo's appearances, and goals per game rate, dropped by 10 per cent season on season...



In this instance, he would end up with almost 100 goals less than at his current rate, with his final season, at the grand old age of 36, yielding a still respectable 18 goals in 29 appearances.

Of course, no discussion of Ronaldo would be complete without mentioning his eternal rival Lionel Messi. Their head-to-head tussle has defined this era of football, so how would Barca's little magician stack up if he maintained the goalscoring rate he has set since 2009-10, when Ronaldo moved to La Liga...



Messi, being younger than Ronaldo, would still be playing in 2023, giving him the opportunity to rack up 771 goals - that's 146 (or 23%) more than the Portuguese! Combine that with his goals pre-2009, and he'd hit 851 goals for Barcelona.

Like Ronaldo, though, Messi surely cannot maintain such elite scoring into his twilight years, so (beginning after he turns 31 just before the start of the 2018-19 campaign) how does Messi fair with a 10% decline added each season?



Even with a 10% decline that would see him make just 31 appearances in all competitions in his final season, and score a respectable 17 goals, Messi would still out-score Ronaldo at the Portuguese's currentrate!

So, if Ronaldo wants to finish his career with more goals than Messi, he'll have to keep on scoring 55 goals per season until he's 39 - and hope the Argentine retires long before he does!

The best ever? We'll let you be the judge...