Who assisted Ronaldo's 100 goals?

With his first strike arriving in 2003, the Portuguese has taken almost 19 years to reach the landmark – although, of course, a dozen of those were spent playing abroad, for Real Madrid or Juventus.

Nevertheless, with Ronaldo’s top-flight goals spanning such a wide period of time, it’s interesting to take a look at all the different players who have provided an assist for CR7 in the Premier League – and yes, we actually went back and counted all 100!

Before we begin, it’s important to note that 38 of our no.7’s efforts don’t actually have a player to whom an assist is credited.

Ronaldo has netted 14 penalties and 11 free-kicks for United in the league and stats provider Opta doesn’t recognise assists for these goals.

A further 13 strikes can also be filed in the ‘no assist’ category, although there are a multitude of reasons for this – whether Ronny tapped home from a rebound off the woodwork or the goalkeeper, or if a defender was the last player to touch the ball.

With that in mind, there have been 62 assists for Ronaldo goals in the Premier League, shared out across 28 different players.

Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney lead the way with eight apiece and that’s perhaps no surprise as both starred alongside Ronaldo in attack during United’s imperial phase, when we claimed three successive league titles between 2006 and 2009.

Two very different players are next up on four, with Cristiano’s compatriot Nani laying on the same number of goals from the wing as the more deep-lying passer, Michael Carrick.

Dimitar Berbatov, Carlos Tevez and Ruud van Nistelrooy and all conjured a trio of assists for CR7, with the Bulgarian perhaps claiming the most famous of all following his wonderous turn and pass on the touchline against West Ham in 2008.

Alex Telles is the only current Red to manage more than one assist for Ronaldo, with the Brazilian swinging in corners for the 37-year-old to head home as part of his recent hat-tricks against Tottenham and Norwich.

Telles joins greats of yesteryear including Roy Keane, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes on two assists and there are then a plethora of names to whom just one assist is credited.

Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and even goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar were among those to set up goals for Ronny during his first spell, but there is still time for current names Anthony Elanga, Bruno Fernandes, Fred, Nemanja Matic, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Luke Shaw to add to their tally.

PL ASSISTS FOR RONALDO

8 – Giggs, Rooney
4 – Carrick, Nani
3 – Berbatov, Tevez, Van Nistelrooy
2 – Fletcher, Keane, O’Shea, G. Neville, Saha, Scholes, Telles, Vidic
1 – Brown, Elanga, Evra, Ferdinand, Fernandes, Fred, Hargreaves, Matic, McTominay, Rashford, Sancho, Shaw, van der Sar