When will Ronaldo reach the 1,000-goal milestone? Experts predict the time

Cristiano Ronaldo is steadily moving towards the amazing milestone of scoring the 1,000th career goal.

In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers on October 15, the Portuguese team drew 2-2 away with the Hungarian team. During the game, Ronaldo scored twice, raising his career total to 948 goals, with only 52 goals left to reach the "thousand-goal" mark.

With these two goals, Ronaldo also created new history - he scored 41 goals in 51 games, surpassing Guatemalan player Carlos Ruiz (39 goals) and becoming the player with the most goals in the history of World Cup qualifying.

Among these 948 goals, Ronaldo scored 143 goals for the Portuguese national team and contributed 805 goals at the club level. He has played a total of 1,068 games in his career so far.

Judging from the current goal efficiency, football experts generally predict that Ronaldo is expected to officially break the 1,000-goal mark around October 2026. This goal is extremely realistic: on the one hand, the Portuguese team has almost locked in the qualification for the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, by which time Ronaldo will have the opportunity to continue scoring goals in international competitions; on the other hand, his contract with the Saudi team Riyadh Victory will last until 2027, which means that he has at least two years of top league appearances guaranteed.

Although he turned 40 in February this year, Ronaldo has shown amazing competitive status and continuous scoring ability. In four seasons with Riyadh Victory, he scored 104 goals in 117 games in all competitions and has always been the team's most important offensive core.

In 2025 alone, Ronaldo has scored a total of 32 goals for the club and national team, continuing the terrifying record of averaging more than 50 goals per year since 2010. The peak season of his career was 2013, when he scored 69 goals in a single year.

Now, Ronaldo has once again proven with his performance that he is one of the greatest shooters in football history. As his number of goals approaches 1,000, fans around the world are eagerly looking forward to it - when will this Portuguese superstar officially write the Thousand-Goal Legend?