Cristiano Ronaldo has matched a goal record from his Juventus days but couldn’t match a personal best.
Ronaldo scored twice in Al Nassr‘s 3-0 win over Al Akhdoud in the Saudi Pro League on Saturday.
It means he has netted 12 goals in the first 10 league games of the season — the second-best return of his career.
Ronaldo has matched the 12 goals in the first 10 games of the 2020-21 season when he played for Juventus in Serie A.
However, his best return from the opening 10 games of a campaign came in 2014-15 when he scored 18 times for Real Madrid in LaLiga.
The 40-year-old striker struck his 956th career goal on Saturday, meaning he is just 44 away from the miraculous 1,000-goal milestone.
His second goal for Al Nassr on Saturday was his 40th of the calendar year for club and country, a landmark he has reached 14 times in his legendary career, including in each of the past three years.
He has scored for the eighth consecutive Saudi Pro League game, bagging 11 in the process.
That is his longest streak of goals in consecutive games since the 2019-20 season with Juventus, when he scored in 11 games in a row.
Ronaldo’s second goal on Saturday against Al Akhdoud briefly made him the top scorer in the Saudi Pro League for the season, until his teammate (and fellow Portugal forward) João Félix struck in stoppage time for Al Nassr.
Ronaldo and João Félix are now level-pegging with 12 goals at the top of the scoring charts in Saudi Arabia.
But Ronaldo was restricted to two goals meaning his wait for a hat-trick goes on.
He hasn’t scored three goals in a match since May 4, 2024 in a Saudi Pro League meeting with Al Wehda.
Ronaldo’s Al Nassr are next in action on Tuesday Dec. 27 against Al Ettifaq, giving him his next chance to extend his remarkable goalscoring statistic
