Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro: The Greatest Footballer To Play In The UEFA Champions League

UEFA Champions League which is one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world and the most prestigious club competition in Europe has seen many players participate in the competition from leagues across the European continent.

Cristiano Ronaldo is UCL greatest player

The European competition has seen the likes of Lionel Messi (Argentina), Raúl (Spain), Ruud van Nistelrooy (Netherlands), Karim Benzema (France), Thierry Henry (France), Alfredo Di Stéfano(Argentina), Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine), Zlatan Ibrahimović (Sweden), Eusébio (Portugal) and many more all compete for the coveted trophy.

In the past 8 years, we’ve seen two players dominate the scene of the competition and arguments of who is the best has trailed every match they played.

Christiano Ronaldo champions league record

With Spain being the best country to have participated and won more than any other European country, winning it 17 times (Real Madrid 12, Barcelona 5), Ronaldo and Messi have been distinguished as the best and these two have scored a total of 215 goals between them.

The Real Madrid star has surpassed and broken all records to put him over all other players as the best to have played in the competition.

Christiano Ronaldo champions league record

Christiano Ronaldo champions league record all time

Ronaldo who is said to be losing form has scored the most goals in the history of the competition, scoring 117 goals in 151 matches.

His former coach Sir Alex Ferguson made a comment about the player saying; “I have nothing but praise for the boy. He is easily the best player in the world. His contribution as a goal threat is unbelievable. His stats are incredible. Strikes at goal attempts on goal, raids into the penalty box, headers. It is all there. Absolutely astounding.”

He joined Real Madrid at the beginning of the 2009/2010 season for a world record transfer fee of £80 million (€94 million) at the time.

Below is Ronaldo’s stat for the most:

Goals: 117
Braces: 33
Assists: 38
Hatricks: 7*
FK goals: 12
SF goals: 13
QF goals: 20
GS goals: 60*
KO goals: 57
Away goals: 53
Home goals: 60
Final goals (UCL): 4
Goals in a season: 17
Hatricks in a season: 3
Seasons as the top scorer: 6

Penalty goals: 14
Header goals: 19
GS goals in a season: 11
KO goals in a season: 10
Seasons with 10+ goals: 7
Goals with a single club: 102
Consecutive games scoring: 9*
Consecutive seasons as the top scorer: 5
Goals vs a single team: 9 (v Bayern)*

FK = Freekick
GS = Group Stage
KO = Knock-out Stage
QF = Quarter Final
SF = Semi Final
* = Shared Record

Statistics Source: UEFA