Cristiano Ronaldo and the race for the European Golden Shoe this season
Cristiano Ronaldo has started a new chapter in his career after moving to Juventus this summer. In July, Real Madrid sold the star player for €100 million, the price tag is the highest ever for a football player over 30 years old.
As a matter of fact, Ronaldo had a lot of remarkable memories at Real Madrid, and he will be hoping for a repeat at his new club.
The 33 year old forward played in Spain for 9 years, Italy will be a new experience for him. On the other hand, he has proven that moving to a new country or a new club is not an obstacle for him.
Ronaldo started his career at Sporting CP, a renowned club in his home country of Portugal. Afterwards, he moved to Manchester United where he earned his stripes and fittingly won his first Ballon d'Or award.
Subsequently Spanish giants Real Madrid signed him in 2009, and he went on to become the all time top goalscorer at the club, winning 4 more Ballon d'Or awards in the process.
In the last ten years, the footballing world has seen and anticipated the Messi and Ronaldo rivalry in terms of goals, assists, and Ballon d'Or awards each season. In fact, both of them have won the Ballon d'Or award five times each, and Kaka was the last player to hold the Ballon d'Or aside Ronaldo or Messi. Ronaldo will be eager to continue this historic rivalry by scoring tons of goals this season.
At Real Madrid he scored an impressive 451 goals, and he is the only player in history to score more than 50 goals in six consecutive seasons. He also scored more than 60 goals in four consecutive seasons.
His incredible numbers say a lot about his goal scoring ability, and there is a great possibility he could become the top goalscorer this season.
However, last season was certainly ordinary by his standards. Ronaldo scored a total of 44 goals in all competitions, but he netted only 26 league goals. As a result, he was way behind last season's top scorer Lionel Messi who netted 34 league goals.
Ronaldo will be determined to improve his performance this season and challenge Messi in the race for top goalscorer. Juventus has an awe-inspiring team with several quality players, and Ronaldo is expected to excellently lead the charge on the goal-front for them this season.
All stats via transfermarkt