WCristiano Ronaldo has built one of the most impressive scoring records in soccer history over a professional career spanning over 20 years of play, goals and talent.
In fact, the Portuguese is 35 goals away from reaching 1,000 goals (965), making him the only player to reach this milestone. But within this extraordinary record is a strange statistic that never ceases to amaze fans. That is, “El Bicho” has never scored a goal in the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup.
CR7 aims to reverse World Cup ‘curse’
The Portugal captain has appeared in five World Cups (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022), scoring in the group stage in several of them, carrying the expectations of thousands of fans in his home country who dream of winning their first championship.
According to ESPN FC, despite his achievements and scoring streak, the Portuguese has failed to register a goal once the tournament enters the decisive stages (round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final).
The truth is, going back to Cristiano’s first appearance at the 2006 World Cup in Germany (where Portugal reached the semi-finals), Ronaldo played in the finals against the Netherlands, England, France and Germany, but did not score. In the 2010 tournament in South Africa, CR7 and his friends were eliminated in the round of 16 against Spain, where the Al Nasr star failed to score.
Brazil was different in 2014, with Portugal failing to make it past the group stage. At the 2018 World Cup in Russia, Ronaldo showed some sparkle in the early stages, scoring a hat-trick against Spain and another goal against Morocco, but when the team advanced to the last 16, they lost 2-1 to Uruguay without a goal from the Portuguese.
Meanwhile, in the latest Qatar 2022 tournament, the Portuguese national team advanced to the quarterfinals, and although Ronaldo started on the bench in the deciding match against Morocco, he still did not score. He did not score a single point in the 6-1 win against Switzerland in the round of 16.
The truth is, for a player like Cristiano who has scored multiple times in different competitions, this statistic is surprising.
Now that he is nearing the end of his career, any chance of changing that statistic depends on whether the Portuguese star can qualify for another World Cup, and he is determined to reverse it in a competition hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.
CR7 was diagnosed with a hamstring injury after Al Nasr’s last match against Al Faiha (3-1). He has started the rehabilitation process and his condition will be assessed daily, but the Portuguese star will be forced to miss several games to recover.
Personally, due to this injury, my attempt to achieve 1,000 career official game goals by stopping the counter with 965 was temporarily suspended. Meanwhile, only time will tell when the Portuguese player will return to the pitch and whether he will be able to break this “curse” that has plagued his career.
Meanwhile, Portugal will face Colombia, Uzbekistan in Group K and the winner of the intercontinental play-off between Jamaica, Congo and New Caledonia. On Wednesday 17 June, Portugal will play their first match against the winners of the intercontinental play-off. They will play against Uzbekistan on June 23rd (Tuesday) and Colombia on June 27th (Saturday).
