Cristiano Ronaldo loses a monumental 14-year record

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored over 40 goals in a calendar year for the third consecutive time, yet his 2025 concluded imperfectly with the end of a lengthy record streak.

At 40 years old, Ronaldo raised his career goal tally to 957 after Tuesday's match, but Al Nassr’s perfect start to the Saudi Pro League season came to an end with a 2-2 draw against Al Ettifaq. Ronaldo scored in a rather fortunate manner when the ball deflected off his back and went into the net, leaving him just 43 goals short of the 1,000-goal milestone.

Wijnaldum unexpectedly put Al Ettifaq ahead within the first 20 minutes. Early in the second half, Joao Felix equalized for Al Nassr. Then, Felix’s shot inside the box brushed Ronaldo’s back and changed direction into the goal.

CR7 immediately raised his hands in celebration as the ball crossed the line, before running off to perform his signature “Siu” celebration. This goal, credited to Ronaldo’s back touch, capped his 2025 with 41 goals for both club and country.

However, according to talkSPORT, Ronaldo failed to score any further goals for the remainder of the match, meaning that his record streak of scoring at least one hat-trick in every calendar year in official competitions has officially ended.

The Portuguese forward had scored at least one hat-trick in official competitions every year from 2010 to 2024 but was unable to achieve this in 2025. His last hat-trick came in a 6-0 win over Al Wehda in the Saudi Pro League in May 2024. Since then, he mostly scored braces. In the previous match, Ronaldo seemed close to another hat-trick, but VAR disallowed his third goal against Al Akhdoud. In 2025, Ronaldo did score a hat-trick against Rio Ave, but that was only in a pre-season friendly for the 2025/2026 season.

This result ended Al Nassr’s 10-match winning streak in the Saudi Pro League and marked their first draw of the season. Consequently, Al Taawoun reduced the gap to just 3 points before the two teams meet again after the winter break at the end of January.