Ronaldo joins Premier League 100 club
Cristiano Ronaldo has joined the Premier League 100-goal club, after scoring against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.
Cristiano snuck in between two Gunners defenders at the far post to halve the deficit on 34 minutes, after Nemanja Matic's incisive cross.
Our no.7 has become just the 33rd different player to record a century of top-flight strikes since the league was rebranded in 1992.
4 - Since the 2003-04 season, @Cristiano is one of four players to score 100+ goals in two of Europe's big-five leagues (LaLiga, Premier League), along with Edinson Cavani (Ligue 1, Serie A), Gonzalo Higuaín (LaLiga, Serie A) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Ligue 1, Serie A). Centurions.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) April 23, 2022
It was the Portuguese star’s 16th league effort of the 2021/22 season, in his 27th appearance after returning to Old Trafford in the summer.
During his first spell at the club, between 2003 and 2009, Ronaldo scored 84 Premier League goals in 196 games, winning the Golden Boot award at the end of the 2007/08 campaign.
When Man Utd desperately needed a goal...
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 23, 2022
Cristiano Ronaldo bags his 100th in the Premier League 😤 pic.twitter.com/MuciG9c8f1
Cristiano shared a pitch with all three of the other Reds to hit a century of Premier League goals for United, with Ryan Giggs being the first to do so when registering against Portsmouth in November 2009.
Wayne Rooney and Paul Scholes also racked up their tons later in that same season, with Rooney pipping Scholes to the landmark by a matter of weeks in early 2010.
Seven other former Reds are also members of the 100 club, although they have all scored a lot of their goals for rival teams.
Andy Cole is behind only Alan Shearer and Rooney in the all-time scoring charts and 93 of his 187 Premier League goals came as a United player.
Michael Owen (five of 150), Teddy Sheringham (31 of 146) and Robin van Persie (48 of 144) all added to their already significant tallies upon joining the Reds later in their career, although the majority of their strikes came for Liverpool, Tottenham and Arsenal respectively.
Dwight Yorke (48 of 123) and Romelu Lukaku (28 of 118) passed the three-figure mark during their time with the club, while the first two of Dion Dublin’s 111 Premier League strikes were scored in the red shirt, prior to his move to Coventry City in 1994.
Ronaldo’s 100th strike came in his 223rd English top-flight appearance, which isn’t too bad considering it took him over two seasons to reach double figures and 147 games to get to the half-century!
Cristiano, of course, was an exciting - if raw - natural talent when he first signed, rather than the ruthless penalty-box predator we’ve grown accustomed to in recent years.
Congratulations on another goalscoring achievement, Ronny – let’s hope you can add a few more before the season’s out!