Cristiano Ronaldo at 100 Goals and Other Statistical Ponderings


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Half a day after Cristiano Ronaldo scored two goals at Lyon, making it his 99th and 100th goals for Real Madrid. Twenty Four hours after Lionel Messi nailed his hat trick, making it 202 goals for Barcelona in his career. The comparisons can’t, won’t stop. But the goals just won’t stop.

The two are pretty evenly matched in career terms. Lionel Messi has 202 goals in 286 appearances, 0.706 goal ratio. Cristiano Ronaldo has 100 goals in 105 matches for Real Madrid, an incredible 0.95 ratio. But lets go back to his United days, and start counting from the season he became a major contributor, 2006-2007. Adding that up, and Ronaldo’s at 191 goals in 260 matches. Slightly better than Lionel Messi at 0.73.

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These two got me thinking, and I started doing some other check ups. Lets say, another player who currently can’t stop scoring, Bayern Munich’s Mario Gomez, who scored a hat trick against Napoli last night. He has 19 goals in 17 matches this season. His start for Bayern in 2009-2010 wasn’t that great, but a wonderful second season (39 goals in 45 matches) rectified the numbers. Currently, he’s at 72 goals in 107 matches for Bayern, 0.67 ratio. If we go back to include his last three Stuttgart seasons, we’ll get 151 in 208 matches, 0.725.

Still in the present, before we dive into numbers from the past – David Villa, going through another slow start. Since Villa became a full time starter for Sporting Gijon in 2001-2002, he’s never scored less than 20 goals in a season. Right now, he’s at 240 goals in 458 appearances. Not mind blowing, but still, one of the best in the world for quite some time now.

Another remarkable consistent scorer, although with a short career so far, is Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain. His stocks for Real Madrid started shooting for the sky during his third season with the club. Since then, he has 76 goals in 125 matches, 0.608 ratio. A long injury hurt those numbers a bit last season.

And now we dive into the past, although not too far. Ronaldo, the original Ronaldo, fat Ronaldo. The Brazilian phenom, including his days with Cruzeiro (the very beginning) and his days with Corinthians (the very end), Ronaldo has 352 goals in 518 appearances, 0.679 goals ratio. Now, looking at his career pre injury, taking his first two PSV seasons, the Barcelona year and the first two years with Inter? 0.828. Wow.

He also had four very successful season with Real Madrid, scoring 104 goals in 177 matches. Adding them up gives us 254 in 357. An 0.711 goal ratio, including two career threatening injuries. If it weren’t for those injuries, he’d be the greatest of all time.

Two to go. First, Mario Jardel. Another Brazilian, who during one incredible stretch with FC Porto, Galatasaray and Sportig, from 1996 to 2002, scored 255 goals in 254 match-days. A goal a game, including one amazing 55 goals in 42 matches during the 2001-2002 with Sporting. It’s been a very steep decline since then.

Last? Gerd Müller, of Bayern Munich and West Germany glory. He played his debut year for a club in Bavaria, Nördlingen, scoring 46 goals in 33 matches. It was a swift move to Bayern from there. Müller scored 486 goals in 556 matches before leaving to the United States. That’s 0.874. Over 15 seasons, not a six year stretch. But those were the old days, and football was oh so different.


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