Cristiano Ronaldo is one of football’s greatest ever goalscorers. With 111 international goals to his name and counting, he has more than any other player in history for his country.
Ronaldo has done it at club level too, as the Champions League’s record goalscorer. Over the past 15 years some of the numbers he has put up at club level have been simply phenomenal.
Previous to Ronaldo and his race to the top with Lionel Messi, you would look at the number of goals he put up and think they were simply not possible in the modern game. Ronaldo scored the type of numbers associated with football when it was screened in black and white. He has helped redefine the pinnacle of the sport.
Ronaldo’s greatest ever season
We are going to dive into Ronaldo’s greatest ever individual goalscoring season, which came for Real Madrid in 2014/15.
Ronaldo incredibly managed to surpass the 60 goals he netted for Real in 2012/13, scoring 61 in 54 games.
He was no slouch in between either, netting 55 goals and then 51, before following it up with another 51.
Ronaldo came into the 2014/15 season on a high, after helping Real Madrid beat Atletico Madrid in the 2014 Champions League final to win the trophy for a tenth time, ‘La Decima’.
Despite Real’s success, it was not an entirely happy summer. Ronaldo’s Portugal were eliminated at the group stages of the 2014 World Cup despite his best efforts.
The superstar shook this disappointment off and began the season with a bang, scoring two goals in a 2-0 win over Sevilla to win the UEFA Super Cup in a match played in Cardiff.
Ronaldo’s league season then got underway, and it was one of the most insanely strong streaks he has ever put together.
He scored in his first 11 consecutive games, which included two hat-tricks plus one four-goal haul. Among this stretch was a goal in a 3-1 El Classico win over Barcelona.
His 20 goal in 11 match streak ended when he failed to net against Malaga in a 2-1 win. What did he do instead? Ronaldo provided both assists for Real’s goals.
These were among the 16 La Liga assists Ronaldo contributed in this 2014/15 season, adding to his unfeasible scoring accomplishments.
Ronaldo rebounded from one game without scoring to hit a hat-trick in the next league game against Celta Vigo, in which he became the fastest ever player to score 200 goals in La Liga. He would later become the quickest to 300 goals in 2018.
At the end of 2014, Ronaldo’s efforts were rewarded with his third of five Ballon d’Or awards.
Champions League near-miss
Ronaldo ended the first half of 2014/15 with 25 league goals. He helped Real win the Club World Cup too, although surprisingly did not score, contributing two assists instead.
Real were eliminated early from the Copa del Rey, with Ronaldo a substitute in the first leg defeat to Atletico Madrid. He scored once in the return leg but it was not enough to take them through.
The Champions League group stages began well, with Ronaldo helping to demolish Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool.
Ronaldo netted in a 3-0 win at Anfield before Real won 1-0 at the Bernabeu. He added four further goals in group stage matches against Basel and Ludogorets.
As the competition went on, Ronaldo continued to show his quality, with three goals in knockout rounds against Schalke and Atletico, before a semi-final match-up with Juventus, led by old United teammate Carlos Tevez.
It was here Ronaldo’s Real faltered, and missed out on setting up an El Classico final against Barcelona. Ronaldo scored in both legs of the semi-final, but it was not enough. Juventus won 3-2 on aggregate before going on to lose to Barcelona.
Goals yes, trophies no
The tragedy of Ronaldo’s greatest ever individual season for Real Madrid was that he only won two trophies, the UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.
Despite Ronaldo’s super-human efforts in La Liga, Real’s 92 points was edged by Barcelona’s 94.
Ronaldo had resumed 2015 in strong form, although not quite as consistent as the way he began the season. He went three goals without a game, including a 4-0 loss to Atletico in early February.
By March he had picked up form, netting again in El Classico, this time a costly 2-1 loss, before taking out his anger on Granada.
Ronaldo scored five goals in a 9-1 hammering of Granada, the highest goal haul of his career, before following it up with goals in three consecutive matches.
At a loss after Ronaldo’s performance against Granada, manager Carlo Ancelotti remarked, ‘”What more can be said?”, quoted by SI.
Real ended the season in relentless form, winning nine of their last 10 matches and drawing the other.
Ronaldo incredibly ended the season with three hat-tricks in his last four games, including a 7-3 win over Getafe and scoring all three in a 3-2 away win over Valencia.
Sadly for Ronaldo his best efforts fell short with Real losing the title by two points. Change was about to come to Real Madrid.
What happened next?
Ronaldo and Real bounced back in 2015/16, with Carlo Ancelotti replaced midway through with Zinedine Zidane.
Real went on to win three consecutive Champions League titles, when no other club had won the trophy back to back. They also won La Liga in 2016/17. Ronaldo won the Ballon d’Or in 2016 and 2017.
While 2014/15 was not a collective triumph, for Ronaldo it was a marvel.
He ended with 61 goals in 54 matches, of which 48 came in 35 La Liga games, plus a further 17 league assists.
If you want to inflate his numbers, further, Ronaldo also scored five goals for Portugal during the 2014/15 season, taking his tally for club and country to a staggering 66.
Ronaldo never quite came close to matching those numbers in one season, although he gave it his best shot. His spell at Real Madrid ended with a miraculous 450 goals in 438 matches.
Ronaldo boasts 674 club goals to his name, plus 111 for his country, taking his professional total to 785.
He will now thankfully be looking to add to these galactic numbers upon his return to Manchester United. We are in for a treat.
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