Cristiano Ronaldo can only challenge Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona and Pele as being considered the greatest of all time if he manages to win a World Cup
It appears Cristiano Ronaldo will stop at nothing to boost his chances of being remembered as the greatest footballer of all time.
Ronaldo will not end his career until he scores his 1,000th goal. The Portuguese legend is on 957, but has a contract with Al-Nassr – and the appetite – to ensure he might just go on to achieve his goal, if you’ll pardon the pun. Speaking after being named the Best Middle East Player at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on Sunday, the 40-year-old made this clear.
The 40-year-old football megastar said: “It’s hard to continue playing, but I am motivated. My passion is high and I want to continue. It doesn’t matter where I play, whether in the Middle East or Europe. I always enjoy playing football and I want to keep going. You know what my goal is. I want to win trophies and I want to reach that number [1,000 goals] that you all know. I will reach the number for sure, if I have no injuries.”
Reaching the milestone would be quite an achievement. No other footballer has managed 1,000 goals in competitive matches. But should Ronaldo manage it, the landmark will do nothing more significant than massage his ego.
Because Ronaldo could score 2,000 goals – and he still will wouldn’t be able to lay claim to being a better footballer than Lionel Messi.
In fact, throw Diego Maradona and Pele into the conversation, and Ronaldo might not deserve a place in the top three, let alone be top dog. Ronaldo holds the record for most goals for Portugal (143) and Real Madrid (450).
He is also the only player to have scored 100 or more goals for four clubs – Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Al-Nassr.
He led Portugal to Euro 2016 glory in France – the nation’s first international men’s trophy. And he is expected to captain Portugal at the World Cup in North America next summer.
Make no mistake, Ronaldo is one of the all-time greats. But unless he can achieve what Messi and Maradona both did, and win the biggest trophy of all, Ronaldo can never be considered greater than the Argentinean duo.
And let’s not forget, both Maradona and Messi carried their respective Argentina sides to ultimate glory almost single-handedly.
Ronaldo might do the same with Portugal. But if he doesn’t, at the last time of asking, he will remain someone who cannot be considered as great as he thinks he is.