In addition to winning two trophies at the Best FIFA presentation on Monday night, Cristiano Ronaldo had a double reason to celebrate on Tuesday morning.
Since arriving at Old Trafford, the 36-year-old has shown that he still has enough left in the tank for the Red Devils, scoring 14 goals in 21 outings.
Former Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo spent the first half of this season at Juventus, and he has now received further recognition from FIFA.
As a result, he was selected to the FIFPRO Men’s World11 for 2021, and the Portuguese superstar also received a special accomplishment award from the governing organisation.
The reason for this was that he had just broken the senior men’s international goals record earlier this year.
Ronaldo has scored more than 800 goals throughout his illustrious career, with 115 of them coming for his country of birth, Portugal. A brace against the Republic of Ireland in September allowed him to break the previous record.
What did Cristiano Ronaldo say?
Ronaldo made the following remarks at the ceremony: “It’s all a dream, really. First and foremost, I’d want to express my gratitude to my former national team teammates with whom I’ve shared the field for the last 20 years. Isn’t it true that the previous record was 109? So we’re six goals ahead. I’m quite pleased with myself. It is a particular honour from FIFA, which is an organisation that I really admire.
I owe a debt of gratitude to my family as well. Soon, I’ll be a parent for the second time. I am pleased with myself. It’s an honour to be the all-time leading goal scorer,” Cristiano Ronaldo said.
Ronaldo went on to say: “To this day, I still have a strong desire to play the game and score goals. I’ve been involved in football since I was five years old. It doesn’t matter whether I’m on the field or in training; my drive is still there. I’m in terrific shape, even though I’ll be 37 in a few months. I’m continuing to put in the effort.
I’m enthusiastic about the game and have a strong desire to succeed. I really want to go on. It’s all in the mind, but I’d want to play for four or five years at the most. If you take excellent care of your body when you need it, it will repay your kindness.”
If the general public worried about whether Ronaldo would surpass Pele as the highest-scoring male player in international football history back then, no one did the same about another Ronaldo when he was 21 years old. A winger, the latter had scored 12 goals in 40 games for Portugal and had a goal-scoring record of his own.
Cristiano Ronaldo, on the other hand, was a freak of nature. Indeed, Cristiano’s 49 goals in his previous 47 international appearances propelled him above Ali Daei and onto 110 goals total, becoming him the all-time leading scorer among men.
