Ronaldo stops thinking long-term after setting a 1000-goal target for himself
Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo admitted that he is at that point in his career where he can’t think about any long-term aspirations.
Ronaldo, who is the highest goal-scorer in sports history, recently set a target for himself to net 1000 goals before retirement. However, he has now decided not to pile up the pressure of expectations on himself and wants to live in the moment.
Ronaldo was recently awarded the highest accolade for a Portuguese player, the Platinum Quinas, which he received by Portuguese Football Federation President Fernando Gomes in a gala event on Monday night.
After receiving the prestigious award, Ronaldo discussed his aspirations of scoring 1,000 goals and asserted that he would be happy to achieve them, but if not, he would already be the player with the most goals in history.
“I now face my life as living in the moment. I can’t think long term anymore. I said publicly that I wanted to reach 1,000 goals, but it seems that now everything is easy. Just last month, I reached 900. It’s about living in the moment, seeing how my legs will respond in the next few years. If I reach 1,000 goals, that’s fine, but if I don’t, I’m already the player with the most goals in history,” Ronaldo said.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is the only player to score 900 professional goals, as his rival Lionel Messi recently completed his 850 and is lagging behind in the race. Ronaldo moved to the Saudi Pro League in the winter transfer window of 2022 and has been breaking goal-scoring records there since then; however, he has not yet won a title with Al Nassr. He was the leading goal-scorer in the league last season but has started a bit slow this season and has netted 6 goals thus far.
Recently, Ronaldo helped fire Al Nassr to a crushing 5-1 victory against reigning Asian champions Al Ain in the AFC Champions League Elite on Tuesday.
The Portuguese star, without a goal in his past three appearances for the Saudi Arabian side, netted the second of the hosts’ goals at Al Awwal Park in Riyadh.