Cristiano Ronaldo became FIFA’s all-time leading goalscorer with a sensational hat-trick in Manchester United’s 3-2 triumph over top-four rivals Tottenham.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner, 37, was one goal behind Austrian-Czech Josef Bican prior to kick-off but spent no time in matching the amazing achievement, netting his 805th goal after just 12 minutes with a spectacular long-range drive.
The iconic Portuguese attacker added two more goals either side of half-time and now leads all scorers with 807 goals, surpassing Pele, Romario, and Lionel Messi. Ronaldo’s record-breaking goal count includes efforts for Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United – twice – Real Madrid, Juventus, and the Portugal national team. The veteran now has 136 goals for United, to go along with 115 for Portugal, five for Sporting, 101 for Juventus, and 450 for Real Madrid.
Ronaldo’s latest hat-trick, his 49th in club football, was important in United’s triumph over Tottenham, which lifted the Manchester club over Arsenal into fourth position despite having played four more games.
Following Ronaldo’s latest accomplishment, social media erupted, with United’s official Twitter account simply stating: ‘806. @Cristiano. The all-time leading goalscorer in professional football.’
‘Began as a midfielder, progressed to winger, and is now a striker,’ one admirer added. There are 806 goals. Incredible’ Though Ronaldo now holds the official record, it was believed that he passed Bican in January last year, when he scored his 760th career goal in Juventus’ 2-0 Italian Super Cup victory over Napoli.
However, less than 24 hours after Ronaldo believed he had overtaken Bican as the outright leader, the Czech FA contradicted the claim, pointing out that they had overlooked a season in the record books when calculating Bican’s overall haul.
The Czech FA responded to Ronaldo’s claim to the No. 1 slot with a tweet that read: ‘The Czech FA’s History and Statistics committee counted all the goals scored by the legendary Josef Bican and we can announce he scored 821 goals in official matches.’
Jaroslav Kolar, the Czech FA’s head of committee, added: ‘Who is the greatest goalscorer in football history? Cristiano Ronaldo or Josef Bican? A straightforward inquiry with a convoluted response.
Mainly because you have to choose only the official Bican goals from a large number of them, which is difficult. Our Czech FA’s history and statistics committee began addressing this issue.
‘We based our research on information from prominent worldwide statistical sources, which indicate that Bican scored 805 goals in 1952 for Hradec Kralove in the Czech second division.’
‘We located them – 53 goals in 26 games – and also verified every detail of Bican’s league, cup, and international contests.’
‘Subsequently, we released the official total of Bican’s goals scored. We can declare on behalf of the Czech FA’s history and statistics committee that Josef Bican scored 821 goals in official matches.’
Regardless of the figure discovered by the Czech FA last year, Ronaldo has ascended to the top of the charts.