His 100th goal in European competitions – scored in the 77th minute against the German giants – came an incredible 4,624 days since his first for Manchester United against Debrecen in 2005.
On Tuesday evening, he went one better by grabbing a hat-trick in the second-leg to make it 100 goals in the Champions League. He became the first player ever to score a century and it is not simply their sheer volume but also the timing of Cristiano Ronaldo’s scoring feats that make him one of football’s all-time greats.
Ronaldo has been unstoppable, scoring all over the continent, from forty-four goals in Madrid to three in London, four in Munich and even a couple in Moscow.
In fact, Ronaldo has scored in twenty-four different European cities, spanning fifteen countries. The goal machine has scored twenty times in Germany, thirteen times in Italy, nine times in England and a further nine in France - to go with five in both the Netherlands and Turkey.
No player has netted more in a single edition of the Champions League than Cristiano, who has so far hit twenty goals in this season’s competition. He holds the record for goals in the group stage too (eleven in 2015-16), has more strikes in the knockout phase than anyone else (45 in total) and is the only player to have scored three hat-tricks in a single season in the Champions League (also in 2015-16).
There is no doubt that this phenomenal athlete will continue to astound the football world as his personal wealth spirals higher; last year he became the first footballer to top the Forbes list of highest-earning athletes, with a total income of €83m from his salary and endorsements.