Cristiano Ronaldo continued his incredible goalscoring run with a brilliant hat-trick for Al-Nassr on Thursday. The Portugal superstar scored three times as Al-Nassr defeated Al Kholood 5-3 in a thrilling Saudi Pro League match.
The result also moved Ronaldo closer to a historic milestone. He now has 985 goals in professional football for club and country. He needs only 15 more goals to reach 1,000.
The match was level at 2-2 before Ronaldo took control of the game. He completed his hat-trick in just 15 minutes.
Ronaldo moves closer to 1,000 goals
Ronaldo scored in the 66th, 72nd and 81st minutes. His first goal came from a superb free-kick. The three goals took his career tally to 983, 984 and then 985.
It was also the 67th hat-trick of Ronaldo’s professional career. He has scored 44 hat-tricks for Real Madrid, 10 for Portugal, three for Manchester United, three for Juventus and seven for Al-Nassr.
After the game, Ronaldo celebrated the win on social media. He wrote: “Great win, great team performance. Happy to help with a hat-trick!”
Ronaldo is now the leading active player in the race to reach 1,000 professional goals. He has a 49-goal advantage over Lionel Messi, who has 936 goals. However, Messi is younger than Ronaldo and could continue to reduce the gap.
The hat-trick also helped Ronaldo climb to third in the Saudi Pro League Golden Boot race. He has seven league goals so far. He is level with Mateo Retegui and Youssef En-Nesyri.
Tijjani Reijnders is one goal ahead with eight. Ivan Toney leads the race with 12 goals.
With the season still ongoing, Ronaldo needs 15 more goals to reach the remarkable 1,000-goal milestone.
