Cristiano Ronaldo labelled 'b*****d' by Rio Ferdinand for thinly-veiled swipe at Pele
Cristiano Ronaldo couldn't resisted a dig at Brazilian football legend Pele as he targeted ending his incredible career with more than 1,000 competitive goals
Cristiano Ronaldo was jokingly branded a ‘b*****d’ by Rio Ferdinand after the Portuguese legend took a cheeky swipe at Pele.
The Real Madrid and Manchester United icon is still going strong at the age of 39, playing for his country as well as Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League. Despite being just a few months off his 40th birthday, Ronaldo has no intention of hanging up his boot anytime soon.
In fact, he has a remarkable milestone in his sights – 1,000 competitive goals. It is widely believed that Pele, regarded by many as the greatest player of all time, reached four figures during his illustrious career between 1957 and 1977.
However, while his total of 1,279 is recognised as a Guinness World Record, hundreds of those goals came in friendlies, which don’t count in the modern era. Pele himself put his tally at two more due to ‘special appearances’ for Santos after his official retirement.
READ MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo reveals real reason he cried at Euro 2024 after missing penaltyREAD MORE: Cristiano Ronaldo makes retirement confession amid Man Utd 'unfinished business' claimsOf course, there is no little video footage to back up his claims. Most statistical records, recognising only matches at senior level, put Pele’s actual tally at 757 (680 for club and 77 for Brazil).
Ronaldo has already surpassed that figure and is currently on 899 goals for club and country, meaning he would have to play well into 40s to reach the magic 1,000-mark. However, during an interview with former United team-mate Ferdinand, he insisted it was possible.
“Soon I will do 900 and after that it will be 1,000,” he declared. A surprise Ferdinand asked: “F****** hell, how old you going be then?”
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Ronaldo replied: “41, I don’t know. If I don’t have injuries, that is most important, I want that. My challenge is to reach 1,000 goals, with one difference – all the goals that I score will have video. So I can prove that.”
Realising the dig at Pele’s questionable to claim to 1,000 goals, a laughing Ferdinand said: “You’re a b******. You’re talking about [Alfredo] Di Stefano, you’re talking about Pele, you’re talking about Eusebio.”
Ronaldo then insisted: “I respect all of them. My goals [will be on video]. If you want more goals, I can bring them from the training too, so no problem.
“All the goals with video. I will prove to the people who prefer this player or that player. I don’t care about that.”
On how much longer he can play for, Ronaldo said: “I know I’m still looking good. I feel I can still dribble, shoot, score goals, jumping. The day that I feel I cannot produce anything, I pack my bags and I go away, but I feel far from that.”
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