Football: “1,000 goals? Everything is possible,” assures Cristiano Ronaldo

At 38 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo continues to panic the counters. Author of Portugal's second goal in the victory against Slovakia (3-2) on Friday evening, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner scored his 125th goal in 202 caps, a current record in international football. Qualified for Euro 2024 with the Seleção, the Al Nassr striker is still hungry and begins to dream of a crazy goal: reaching 1000 career goals.

This challenge launched by the president of Porto, Pinto da Costa, does not scare CR7, who still have 149 goals left to succeed (he is currently at 851). “The president of Porto (Pinto da Costa) challenged me to reach 1,000 goals. That’s why there was a funny moment. I think it will be very difficult but, as I said, we will see how I am mentally, my motivation and obviously physically, if my legs and my physique treat me as well as I treat them, we will see, explained the Portuguese star after the match at the Dragon stadium in Porto. It's the small steps that motivate me, to get to 1,000 I need to get to 900 first. There's still a long way to go. I think I'll get there. Now it's step by step. Goals should be set for the short term, not the long term. I look forward to 900 goals with confidence, but to get to 1,000, there is still a way to go. But everything is possible.”

Arriving in Saudi Arabia in December 2022, Ronaldo remains at very high standards with 25 goals scored in 30 matches. He will have to keep up this infernal pace for a few more years to cross the 1000 mark, which remains an ambition rather than an obsession. “As I said, some things that have happened in my personal and professional life require me to think short-term. I can't think differently. I don’t want to say, “Oh, I’m going to play until I’m 41, 42…”. I don't have those kinds of goals. It's about enjoying the present moment, he added. I feel good, I'm happy at my club and in the national team, things are going well, I've scored a lot of goals and I feel good physically. Obviously, I wanted to beat this national team record, for the number of goals, which has already been broken, but also for the number of matches, which has also been broken. And like I said, I don't follow the records, the records follow me. So I will continue to think like this.”

Next step for him and his statistics, Monday evening in Bosnia-Herzegovina.