If somebody attempted to look back through Cristiano Ronaldo’s entire career to find the best goals he’s ever scored, it would no doubt take them a very, very long time.
CR7 has scored 725 goals throughout his illustrious career, from tap-ins to headers, short to long-range efforts, overhead kicks to backheels and everything in between.
We’d estimate that at least one in five of his career goals could be considered ‘outstanding’, but if you know anything about Cristiano Ronaldo, you’ll know that he doesn’t stop there.
11 years ago today, playing for Manchester United against Porto in the Champions League, Ronaldo proved on the biggest stage of all that he’s more than capable of ‘exceptional’.
He unleashed one of the best long-range strikes you’ll ever see, and regardless of who you support, it’s enough to give goosebumps to almost any football fan. And it’s time to re-live it.
United were level with Porto on aggregate coming into the tie, so knew that a single goal could seal a place in the Champions League semi-finals against Arsenal (how times change!).
And with that in mind, Ronaldo took it upon himself to get the deed done in style, silencing the Porto home faithful before they could build up any hope of their team doing the same.
Take a look for yourself below:
He receives the ball from Anderson just over 40 yards from goal, drives forward a little with the ball and smacks a thunderous effort into the top right corner of the net. As you do.
Cristiano Ronaldo had scored one of the greatest goals the Champions League has ever seen, and written himself into another page of the football history books in the process.
And of course, there was no way that Porto were recovering from that – who could? The goal was enough to secure a 1-0 win for United at the Estádio do Dragão.
The goal received plenty of attention, from fans, pundits and even professional scientists, who used footage to estimate that his strike had travelled at a speed of 64.2mph.
It was also special for Ronaldo himself, as it came against a team he had despised since his childhood in Portugal. It also won him the 2009 Puskas Award for Goal of the Year.
For Ronaldo, the goal was just a little indication of things to come in his subsequent decade of dominance. But we’ll definitely never forget it!