🤔 967 or 961? Cristiano Ronaldo's goal tally sparks debate, explained | OneFootball

After scoring twice in Al-Nassr’s 5-2 win over Al-Najma in the Saudi league, Cristiano Ronaldo took another important step toward the long-dreamed-of 1,000th goal of his career.

However, the newspaper A Bola raised a debate and cast doubt: does the Portuguese star have 967 or 961 official goals?

The difference of six goals relates to CR7’s performance in the 2023 Arab Club Champions Cup, a tournament in the Middle East that ended with Al-Nassr as champions.

The deadlock exists because that competition is not officially recognized by FIFA.

In practice, the organization treats it as a friendly or preseason tournament, despite the participation of traditional clubs from the region.

Without a definitive ruling from FIFA on the validity of those statistics, some count 967 goals (including the tournament) and others count 961 (excluding the tournament).

📊 Breakdown of CR7’s Goals

The 41-year-old striker’s goal tally by team is as follows:

🔥 Road to Goal No. 1,000

Depending on the criteria used, Cristiano Ronaldo is either 33 goals away (current count of 967) or 39 goals away (count of 961) from reaching the 1,000-goal mark.

The player still has a busy schedule in his pursuit of the record:

📸 Abdullah Ahmed - 2026 Getty Images