Sunday Tribune

Rampant Ronaldo raring for more records

MARK KEOHANE

RONALDO, Portugal and Europe’s greatest goalscorer, wants more milestones at the Euro 2020; primary to them scoring goals against Europe’s ‘big five’.

Ronaldo’s two goals against Hungary made him the record goalscorer in the history of the Euros, surpassing French magician Michel Platini’s nine tournament goals in five matches. The context in this is that Platini scored his nine in five matches and Ronaldo’s nine took 21 matches.

But whether it takes five matches or 21 to get there, the reality is that Ronaldo got there and his goalscoring is only matched by his longevity in playing in five successive Euro Championships, to go with his four successive World Cup appearances, one Uefa Nations League Final and the Fifa Confederations Cup in 2017.

Ronaldo is the only footballer to have played in five European Championships and scored in all five.

His 106 goals for Portugal in 176 matches leaves him just three shy of Iranian Ali Daei’s international record, and it is a matter of when and not if Ronaldo is crowned the greatest international goalscorer to have played the game. I have always been a huge fan of Ronaldo and Argentina’s Lionel Messi. I feel privileged to have spent the last 18 years watching the two players, at club and international level, and it will take a very special duo to match their goalscoring achievements.

They are without doubt the two greatest footballers of their generation, of the two decades in which they have set the standards and they comfortably sit among the best to have ever played the game.

I’ve never understood the obsession with those who continue to want to cancel one’s achievements, in support of the other, or to downplay one’s achievements because of the other.

If you love football, you have to love the quality and the class of Ronaldo and Messi, who despite their goalscoring records, are two very different players. The goalscoring comparison will always be there, but playing roles of the two shouldn’t be compared. Ronaldo is an out and out striker, whereas Messi is a midfield master who creates goals and scores them.

Messi, having joined Barcelona as a 12-year-old, could have opted for Spain internationally, but he was always going to choose Argentina. For Ronaldo, regardless of where he played his club football, it was always going to be international football for Portugal.

Ronaldo’s longevity is down to his supreme conditioning, fitness and work ethic. While other players of his generation seem to have aged dramatically, Ronaldo seems to get younger and his appetite for scoring goals just increases.

He is a rare footballer and one to be appreciated and applauded.

Ronaldo scored his first international goal on June 12, 2004, in a Uefa Euro 2004 group stage match against Greece, and many of those players on the pitch against Hungary, when he scored his 106th goal for Portugal, were still in nappies when Ronaldo got that first one.

The 106 goals are also packaged with 31 assists and nine indirect assists. Players will tell you that the first one is always the most memorable, but Ronaldo isn’t one of those players and, for him the next one is always the most memorable because he just never wants to stop scoring.

The Ronaldo detractors, and you would be surprised at just how many there are on social media, continue to single out what he hasn’t done at international level in an attempt to negate his 106 goals. He has been called a bully in beating inferior opposition and his biggest critics question an international record that has seen him score one hat-trick against Spain, but very little else in the collective five matches he has played against Spain and the other 10 matches against England (2), France (3), Italy (2) and Germany (2), in which he has never scored. It’s a record I believe he will change in the next few weeks.

Ronaldo has a record nine international hat-tricks, and in the victorious 2016 Euro tournament he lifted the trophy as the team captain, was named in the team of the tournament for the third time in his career and was also awarded the Silver Boot as the joint second-highest scorer in the tournament, with three goals and three assists.

Most would be ecstatic with a Silver Boot award, but for Ronaldo second place has never been enough, and what sets him apart from any other striker, is that he has always chased gold in everything he does, and he has only ever reflected on getting gold.

For Ronaldo it is about coming first and scoring first. It has been the story of an international career that started in 2003 and it will be the story of his career until he has played his last game.

Enjoy his brilliance while he is still playing and contributing towards a goal for Portugal every 102 minutes and 28 seconds.

SPORT

en-za

2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://sundaytribune.pressreader.com/article/281792811986164

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