Former United star Cristiano Ronaldo’s Real Madrid records in numbers

Cristiano Ronaldo is making scoring goals look very easy at Real Madrid. A lot has been said about his form in recent times where he managed seven goals in nine matches in all competitions before Espanyol clash.

Since the start of the pre-season, the Portuguese international scored only one goal against Manchester City. If the pre-season fixtures are taken into account, he managed just one goal in eight matches, which includes two La Liga fixtures.

Just when everyone thought Ronaldo’s dip has started, he comes out, as usual, and puts five past the goalkeeper in the league clash against Espanyol. The Spanish giants seal a 6-0 victory at home.

The five goals, which includes a hat-trick has seen Ronaldo eclipse few records for the La Liga outfit. We take a look at the list of records broken by the former Manchester United stand and the one he has held. We also take a view of the potential records, which could be broken.

1. Ronaldo has scored 230 goals from 204 La Liga matches. He is the leading goal scorer for Real in the league.
2. The hat-trick against Espanyol was his 25^th league hat-trick. He overtook Barcelona star Lionel Messi for most number of hat-tricks in the league, which is 24.
3. Ronaldo’s hat-trick has seen him score 29 hat-tricks in all competitions for Real, which is one more than Alfredo di Stéfano’s record.
4. All five goals came from an open play against Espanyol. He now joins Eulogio Martínez, Ferenc Puskás, Hans Krankl, Bebeto and Fernando Morientes as the list of players to have done that for Real Madrid.
5. Last season, he scored 17 goals in the Champions League. He broke Messi and José Altafini’s joint record of 14 goals.

Ronaldo has scored 318 goals for Real since joining them in 2009. He is five goals behind Raul’s record of 323 goals and is edging closer towards becoming the club’s leading goalscorer.

Messi is currently the La Liga’s top scorer as he has so far scored 287 goals and still counting. Ronaldo is 57 behind him in fourth place in all time La Liga leading scorers.

After Real’s latest victory over Espanyol, Rafael Benitez said this about the Portuguese goal-machine. “The numbers speak for themselves. Someone who scores so many goals has a place in the history books.”