The Real Madrid star was on the losing team on Sunday for the first time in 23 matches - but he did at least hit a personal milestone
Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his 287th goal in Europe's 'big five' leagues during …
There's no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo will have walked off the pitch on Sunday night a bitterly disappointed man.
Real Madrid's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Valencia brough Los Blancos' 22-game winning streak to an end - and the fact that the Portuguese star had scored a goal from the penalty spot early on will not have helped cushion the blow at all.
But to eagle-eyed stats-watchers, that goal was a crucial milestone: it moved the 29-year-old up to 287 career goals in Europe's 'big five' leagues.
That means that Ronaldo is now the joint sixth-highest aggregate goalscorer of all time across the top flights of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, having pulled alongside South African-born English star Gordon Hodgson.
And the way Ronaldo is going, it won't be too long before he hauls in the next man on the list: Argentine Ligue 1 legend Delio Onnis is just 12 goals away... while the immortal Dixie Dean's 310 goals is a surefire target for the rest of the season.
Beyond that, third-placed Steve Bloomer - from the early days of the English league - isn't far away on 317, but the big targets of Jimmy Greaves (366 goals) and Gerd Mueller (365) will have to wait until at least next season, and possibly even beyond.
Yet Ronaldo might not even get there first: Lionel Messi is just 30 goals behind, and being a couple of years younger is statistically likely to continue at the peak of his powers for longer. Even if Ronaldo takes the record first, it seems unlikely that he will hang on to it for anything like as long as the half century or so that Greaves has.
Halaaaaa Madrid
Real Madrid's Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates his 287th goal in Europe's 'big five' leagues during …
There's no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo will have walked off the pitch on Sunday night a bitterly disappointed man.
Real Madrid's 2-1 defeat at the hands of Valencia brough Los Blancos' 22-game winning streak to an end - and the fact that the Portuguese star had scored a goal from the penalty spot early on will not have helped cushion the blow at all.
But to eagle-eyed stats-watchers, that goal was a crucial milestone: it moved the 29-year-old up to 287 career goals in Europe's 'big five' leagues.
That means that Ronaldo is now the joint sixth-highest aggregate goalscorer of all time across the top flights of England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France, having pulled alongside South African-born English star Gordon Hodgson.
And the way Ronaldo is going, it won't be too long before he hauls in the next man on the list: Argentine Ligue 1 legend Delio Onnis is just 12 goals away... while the immortal Dixie Dean's 310 goals is a surefire target for the rest of the season.
Beyond that, third-placed Steve Bloomer - from the early days of the English league - isn't far away on 317, but the big targets of Jimmy Greaves (366 goals) and Gerd Mueller (365) will have to wait until at least next season, and possibly even beyond.
Yet Ronaldo might not even get there first: Lionel Messi is just 30 goals behind, and being a couple of years younger is statistically likely to continue at the peak of his powers for longer. Even if Ronaldo takes the record first, it seems unlikely that he will hang on to it for anything like as long as the half century or so that Greaves has.
Halaaaaa Madrid
