Cristiano Ronaldo marked his return to competitive football with a goal and a new career record, scoring in Al Nassr’s 4–0 victory over Al Riyadh in the Saudi Pro League. The 41-year-old Portugal forward returned to action 44 days after his country’s World Cup exit and immediately added another landmark to an already extraordinary career.
Ronaldo’s goal made him the first footballer to score in 25 consecutive professional league seasons. The record had previously belonged solely to Sweden’s Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored in 24 successive league campaigns between the 1999–2000 and 2022–23 seasons.
Ronaldo equalled Ibrahimovic’s mark last season. His latest goal has now taken him beyond the former Sweden striker, giving him the record outright.
His return came after a short break at the beginning of the new season. Ronaldo missed Al Nassr’s first two matches after being granted additional time away in Portugal, where he completed wedding arrangements with Georgina Rodriguez.
After returning to Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo did not immediately go back into the starting XI. Manager Ange Postecoglou opted to introduce him from the bench against Al Riyadh, with Al Nassr already firmly in control by the time he entered the match.
Ronaldo came on in the 62nd minute, with his side leading 3–0. Goals from Abdulrahman Al-Amri, Angelo Gabriel and Joao Felix had given Al Nassr a commanding advantage before the Portuguese star appeared.
He needed only 21 minutes to make his presence felt.
In the 83rd minute, Ayman Yahya delivered a low cross into the penalty area. Ronaldo met it with his left foot and guided the ball into the net, completing Al Nassr’s four-goal victory and adding another significant entry to his record book.
The goal also moved Ronaldo closer to another much-discussed milestone. His professional career tally has now reached 977 goals, leaving him 23 short of the landmark of 1,000.
Reaching that figure would represent another extraordinary achievement in a career that has already included a vast collection of individual and team honours. Ronaldo has continued to score regularly despite entering the latter stages of his playing career, maintaining a level of consistency that has allowed him to compete at the highest level for more than two decades.
His latest appearance was therefore significant on several fronts. He returned after a 44-day absence, contributed to a convincing league victory, surpassed Ibrahimovic’s record for consecutive scoring seasons and moved closer to 1,000 professional goals.
For Al Nassr, the result provided a strong platform at the beginning of the campaign. For Ronaldo, it was another reminder of his remarkable longevity. Even after beginning the match on the bench, he needed only a brief appearance to influence the scoreline and extend one of football’s most notable scoring records.
