Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 500th career goal for club and country — in just 753 games — with one against Malmo on Wednesday.
Ronaldo, 30, has scored nine goals in his last six games for Real Madrid and is now within two of breaking club legend Raul’s record at the top of the Madrid scoring charts, which stands at 323 in 741 games.
The Portuguese, who joined the club in 2009 for a then-world record fee of £80 million, has netted his 322 goals from just 308 matches. He also scored 118 goals for Manchester United, 55 for Portugal and five for Sporting.
“What Ronaldo does you cannot name, it is on another historic level,” Raul told Marca earlier this week. “It is incredible what he has done in only six years, scoring an average of more than 50 goals a season, when it used to be hard for me to reach 20. I hope he keeps scoring many more goals for a long time, and helps the team to win titles.”
Ronaldo’s most prolific season was the 2011-12 campaign — when he scored 69 goals for club and country — and he has beaten the 60-goal mark in each of his last two seasons.
His current tally of 230 in 206 games in La Liga puts him four away from third-placed Hugo Sanchez (234 in 347 games) in the all-time domestic scoring list and also behind Telmo Zarra (251 in 277 games) and Barcelona striker Lionel Messi, who tops the charts with 289 in 321 games.
Ronaldo is also the record scorer in the Champions League: he has 81 (66 for Madrid, 15 for United).
