Cristiano Ronaldo became the joint-highest goalscorer in the history of football with an injury-time strike for Juventus against Sassuolo, media reports claim.
Ronaldo drilled home at the death to give his side a 3-1 win – taking his career tally to an incredible 759 for club and country.
That meant the Portugal star joined Josef Bican at the top of the game’s all-time scoring records – and will undoubtedly overtake him as the game’s most prolific marksman.
Bican played for clubs including Rapid Vienna, Slavia Prague and Dynamo Prague in the 1930s, 40s and early 50s, representing Austria and Czechosovakia at international level. A star in Austria in the 1930s, he was a member of the side that reached the 1934 World Cup semi-finals, but he actually continued playing until 1955, eventually retiring at the age of 42. By that point, Bican, a two-footed forward blessed with sprinter-like pace, had racked up 759 goals.
Last week, Cristiano broke Pele’s domestic goal record with his 758th goal in Juventus’ 4-1 Serie A win over Udinese. He needs just one more goal to become the highest scoring player ever.
Arch rival Lionel Messi could still challenge Ronaldo, after he bettered Pele’s one club record at the end of 2020, with 644 goals now scored for Barcelona.
Messi’s all-time total is 719 for club and country, however, at two years younger than Ronaldo, he could yet overhaul him before retirement.
Both players broke records in the first week of 2021. Messi has now scored 11 goals in La Liga this season, becoming the only player to score 10-plus goals in 15 consecutive seasons in the competition’s history.
With his strike against Sassuolo, Ronaldo became the only player able to score at least 15 goals in each of the last 15 seasons in the top five European leagues (since 2006/07).