Cristiano Ronaldo scores 500th career goal

Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 500th career goal in Real Madrid’s Champions League encounter with Malmo on Wednesday.

Ronaldo scored the first goal of the game in the 29th minute as he finished off a swift Madrid counter-attack with a clinical strike after being played in by Isco to reach the milestone.

The prolific attacker scored five goals for Sporting CP in the early stages of his career, netted 118 times for Manchester United, added 55 more for Portugal and has now reached 322 goals for Madrid.

The 30-year-old started his professional career with Sporting and opened his account for the Lisbon giants on his league debut on October 7, 2002, scoring twice to help them to a 3-0 win over Moreirense. 

He would go on to score five goals in all competitions for Sporting before leaving them for United after one season of first-team football.

The Portugal international failed to hit double figures in his first two seasons at Old Trafford, but would eventually go on to score 118 goals for United, 91 of which came in his last three seasons. He finished the 2007-08 campaign as the Premier League’s top scorer with 31.  

Ronaldo left United for Real Madrid in 2009 and only improved on his impressive goalscoring record at the Santiago Bernabeu, breaking the 100-goal mark after just three seasons in the Spanish capital. 

He enjoyed arguably his finest season at an individual level in 2014-15, when he scored 61 club goals in 54 appearances across all competitions, although Madrid ended the season trophyless.

The attacker has amassed 322 goals in all competitions for Madrid following Wednesday’s strike in Sweden, bagging three La Liga golden boot awards since joining the club.

Furthermore, Ronaldo is the all-time leading goalscorer in the Champions League ahead of Lionel Messi and Raul, being crowned top scorer in 2008, 2013, 2014 and 2015.

At international level, he scored his first goal at Euro 2004 in Portugal’s 2-1 loss against Greece and has found the net at each major tournament since. Ronaldo has so far scored 55 goals in 122 appearances for his country.