Cristiano Ronaldo hit a hat-trick against Cagliari to help Juventus bounce from the UEFA Champions League exit and silence his criticizers.
On Saturday, the Portuguese talisman had hit on his critics that ‘True Champions never Break!’ Ronaldo took the blame for the decisive goal that knocked the Turin out of the glorious European league.
Ronaldo has silenced his critics, who have been heavily criticized as he bounced back strong to hit 770 goals landmark.
World all-time scorer Pele congratulated Ronaldo after surpassing his unofficial total of 767 ‘official’ goals.
“Congratulations on breaking my record of goals in official matches,” Pele wrote on Instagram on Sunday.
While celebrating the milestone, Ronaldo explained how he had calculated the record.
“The last few weeks were filled with news and stats considering me the World’s Top Scorer in football history, Overcoming Pele’s 757 official goals. Although I’m thankful for that recognition, now it’s time for me to explain why I didn’t acknowledge that record until this moment,” Ronaldo said on Instagram.
Ronaldo revealed that he has everlasting and unconditional admiration for Mister Edson Arantes do Nascimento [Pele]. The football respect led him to take into account his Pele’s 767. He said he assumed Pele’s 9 Sao Paulo State Team goals and the single goal for the Brazilian Military Team, as official goals.
Ronaldo, who also revealed that he could never have dreamed of overcoming Pelé’s record said, “The World has changed. Since then and football has changed as well. But this doesn’t mean that we can just erase history according to our interests,”
Meanwhile, Juventus coach Andrea Pirlo responded to the surprising humiliating Champions League exit.
He responded, “It was the right approach, which we needed after failing to qualify the other day. And we started on the right foot.”
He continued, “I think if we maintain that unity, we’ll do well. Now we have the whole week to prepare. And also the break for international duty gives us a chance to get some players back.
“We try to take the positives from every situation, we have more time to analyze how we can improve.”