In an interview with Rio Ferdinand on his personal Youtube channel, Cristiano Ronaldo was accused of mocking the late legend Pele about the number of goals he scored in his career.
“I want to score 1,000 goals with one difference,” Ronaldo said, laughing. “That all 1,000 of my goals have videos so I can prove it’s true.”
Ferdinand laughed, then replied: “You are a devil.”
Ronaldo continued: “My goals are certified, and if they want more goals, I can count the goals scored in training sessions too. No problem. And I will prove it to the fans of another player.”
Rio Ferdinand and Cristiano Ronaldo in CR7’s Youtube interview, referring to Pele. Photo: Daily Mail
Ronaldo did not mention Pele or any other player in this conversation, but according to the British newspaper Daily Mail , the 39-year-old striker meant to mock Pele or other football legends of the past. On his personal Instagram account , the Brazilian legend calls himself “The highest goal scorer of all time” with 1,283 goals, and is recognized by Guinness World Records.
Meanwhile, Ronaldo once publicly affirmed that he had surpassed Pele’s record of 757 goals in March 2021. Currently, the Al Nassr club captain has scored 899 goals in 1,235 matches, holding the record according to the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS), if not counting club-level friendlies.
Another Brazilian legend, Romario, is also estimated by the IFFHS to have scored 968 goals in 1,188 games, but that includes club friendlies. If club friendlies are not counted, the 58-year-old has scored 755 goals.
In the interview with Ferdinand, Ronaldo also said many philosophical sentences , such as “The present is the best gift in life because we don’t know what will happen tomorrow”, “If you are hiding, you are lying to yourself. You have to be yourself, whether people like it or not”, or “I always put pressure on myself, and tell myself: ‘Cristiano, you are the best player in the world'”.
Ronaldo also admitted that he would be happier if his team won and he scored. Ferdinand gave the example of Man Utd winning 3-0 but Ruud van Nistelrooy still looked sullen after failing to score. “If my team won and I didn’t score, I wouldn’t look so sullen,” the Portuguese captain responded.
Ronaldo also explained why he cried after missing a penalty in the Euro 2024 round of 16 against Slovenia. “It was not because I was worried that if our team lost, it would be like the sky fell on me,” he said. “I cried because I thought about my family members in the stadium watching the match, like my mother, my girlfriend and my children. I swear to God, I wasn’t even worried that Portugal would be eliminated because I missed a penalty, because I didn’t think about that.”
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Ronaldo cried after missing a penalty in the Euro 2024 round of 16.
The 39-year-old striker also hinted that the media “criticises more easily than praises”. “If the media says good things about someone, they don’t sell newspapers,” he said. “They have to say bad things about someone. And if that person is Cristiano, it will always be on the front page. It’s normal, because I’m the most followed person in the world. Not just because of my handsome face, but because of everything.”
After saying this, Ferdinand burst out laughing, while Ronaldo showed no emotion. The two players were teammates at Man Utd from 2003-2009, won the 2008 Champions League and three Premier League titles. Ferdinand was the first person chosen to interview Ronaldo on the Portuguese superstar’s Youtube channel , which he created a week ago. To date, Ronaldo’s channel has surpassed 50 million subscribers.
