Cristiano Ronaldo Scores 500th Club Goal But Not Without Controversy
For Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo, this week has been a roaring one. On Monday (December 12), Ronaldo was awarded the prestigious Ballon D'or 2016. Three days later, the man slammed his 500th club goal as Real Madrid beat Mexico's Club America by a brace to reach the final of Club World Cup which is being played in Japan.
Ronaldo's 500th club goal was his team's second against the North American opponents.The other goal was scored by Frenchman Karim Benzema.
The 2014 winners will take on Kashima Antlers, champions of Japan's J-League, in Yokohama on Sunday (Dec 18). If Ronaldo's team can bag their second title this year, it will be a hat-trick for Spain as Barcelona had won the title last year in three overall. The Japanese team, on the other hand, reached the final of the tournament as the first-ever Asian side.
Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane, a former French star footballer, said after the match that they were looking to make the finals and now after they have made it, they aim to win the title. Real Madrid has an unbeaten streak of 36 matches played in all competitions. Coming back to Ronaldo's feat, the match did not look to be going to his favor as he missed a number of opportunities but carried on with a determined effort to finally score in the injury time.
The Mexicans claimed the footballer was offside and it appeared that the goal could be cancelled under Fifa's new pitchside video technology though their protest was overruled. Real player Luka Modric, who was adjudged the man of the match, said he did not like the technology while Zidane played it safe.
Thirty-one-year-old Ronaldo, who led his country to win the Euro in July, scored his 500th overall goal (club and country) in September last year. He joined Real Madrid in 2009 for a record fee of £80 million and scored 500 times in just 689 games. While Ronaldo has netted 377 goals for the Real in 366 matches, he has scored 118 for Manchester United in 292 games and the remaining five for Sporting Lisbon in 31 encounters.
Ronaldo has 270 goals to his credit in 247 matches in La Liga, ranking behind his famed competitor Lionel Messi who has 321 goals in 359 matches. However, Ronaldo leads Messi in the Champions League where he has 95 goals in 133 games, three more than his Argentine rival.
