When will Cristiano Ronaldo score his 1000th goal? Now just 20 away…
Cristiano Ronaldo is now just 20 goals away from reaching 1,000 goals, the landmark he has openly targeted as the defining achievement of the final years of his career. But when will he get there?
At 41, the question is no longer whether Ronaldo can reach the four-figure mark. It is how long it will take him to get there.
The Portugal captain remains prolific for Al-Nassr, having taken his tally to 980 with his latest goal against Diriyah. But his international future is suddenly in doubt following a falling-out with manager Jorge Jesus, and he’s finally opened up about the possibility of retiring.
We’ve crunched the numbers and mapped out the various scenarios.
“I want to reach 1,000 goals,” Ronaldo said, unveiling his last major career ambition on Rio Ferdinand’s YouTube channel just over two years ago.
“If I don’t have any injuries, this for me is the most important [thing], I want that. For me, the best mark that I can have in football is to reach, first, 900 goals. After, my challenge is to be at 1,000 goals.
“All the goals I have scored, they have video. They all have video. Listen, I respect all of them [Pele and Di Stefano]. And if you want more goals, I can bring them from training, too. And I will prove to the people after. They prefer this player, or this is the best one. I don’t care about that.”
Ronaldo has maintained the importance of that ambition, and reiterated that desire as a major goal, alongside winning a third Nations League title with Portugal.
“Both aims are important,” he said.
“One thousand goals, yes, and the national team. Winning the Nations League, the competition starts tomorrow [Thursday], it’s a new age.”
With all that in mind, here’s our calculations for when Ronaldo could potentially reach the milestone of 1000 goals in his professional career.
– Barring any major career-ending injuries, Ronaldo still looks likely to reach the milestone of a thousand goals at some point in 2027. Probably in the spring.
– It’s possible that if Ronaldo enjoys a resurgence and goes on a hot streak akin to his most prolific peak at Real Madrid, he could do it before the end of the year, but that doesn’t appear likely.
– If you take his recent rate of scoring (21 goals in his last 34 appearances, coinciding almost entirely with the calendar year of 2026) as what he’ll likely maintain, another 33 appearances would take us through to around early April 2027. That calculation, however, assumes he’ll continue featuring for Portugal.
– There is an argument that Ronaldo could be set to improve upon that scoring rate. He’s been written off on the international stage after poor showings in the last two major summer tournaments, but he scored eight goals in nine games in the 2024-25 Nations League and a further five goals in qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. Rediscover that form, up his rate to around 1.00 goals per game, and fill his boots in the Saudi Pro League, and Ronaldo could conceivably reach four figures before the turn of the year. That would require a spectacular run of form, mind.
– There is a counter-argument that Ronaldo will instead slow down in these final furlongs of his career. Recent evidence certainly suggests so. He’s drawn a blank in nine of his last 14 appearances for club and country. Since the summer, he’s averaged 0.42 goals per game. Maintain that rate, and he’ll need another 48 games to score the 20 goals required to reach number one thousand. That could be touch and go to make it before the end of Al-Nassr’s 2026-27 campaign, which is due to end in late May 2027. It could depend on how far they get in the continental and cup competitions.
– The biggest unknown now is Portugal. Ronaldo missed their last two matches following his falling-out with Jorge Jesus, and while he’s since issued a lengthy statement, he still has a suspension to serve. Whether he returns to the international fold remains to be seen. If he doesn’t, that’s potentially a fair few goals and appearances knocked off our projections.
– What kind of form he’ll show to get there is ultimately anyone’s guess. His latest strike against Diriyah suggests he’s still got plenty to offer for Al-Nassr, but the uncertainty surrounding his international future makes predicting an exact date that bit trickier.
– We’ll hedge our bets and estimate that Ronaldo’s form over the coming months will be somewhere between his spectacular peak and a severe decline. He is playing in the Saudi Pro League, after all, and his team is set up to feed him chances. We’ve pencilled in a few more goals for Portugal, assuming he resolves his differences with Jesus, and expect him to keep ticking along for Al-Nassr. Our prediction remains that he’ll score his thousandth career goal when Al-Nassr take on Al-Khaleej in the Saudi Pro League on April 2nd, 2027. But that date might need pushing back if his Portugal career really is over.
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