Another historic achievement for Ronaldo

ROME. — Cristiano Ronaldo unlocked a stunning new career achievement when he netted late on in Juventus’ 3-1 win over Sassuolo in the Italian Serie A football on Sunday.

It meant the Portugal forward became the only player to score at least 15 goals in each of the last 15 seasons in the top five European leagues.

Ronaldo first hit double figures in a league season in 2006-07 when he was a Manchester United player, scoring 17 goals in 34 appearances.

Remarkably Ronaldo, who turns 36 next month, has not dropped below that tally in a full season ever since.

Ronaldo’s best league season was the 2014-15 campaign at Real Madrid where he scored an incredible 48 goals in 35 LaLiga games.

His great rival Lionel Messi has managed to reach 15 goals in 12 consecutive seasons at Barcelona since the 2008-09 campaign, and with 11 so far in LaLiga should make it 13 this year. Ronaldo actually scored his first Serie A goals when Juve beat Sassuolo 2-1 in September 2018, and he has now scored five goals against them in five meetings in the competition following his goal on Sunday.

Ronaldo’s value to Juventus is emphasised by their record with and without the Portugal forward.

Juve’s win percentage is 72.4 with him which drops down to 46.7 without him, with an average of 2.3 points per game compared to 1.7.

The Bianconeri’s average goals scored with Ronaldo on the team is 2.1 per game and drops down to 1.5 when he is absent, and they are better defensively with him involved too, conceding an average 0.9 goals versus 1.1 without him.

Juventus saw Weston McKennie and Paulo Dybala forced out due to injury, but the Serie A champions were able to take the lead through a Danilo strike.

Gregoire Defrel provided the equalizer for 10-man Sassuolo, who were up against it after seeing Pedro Obiang sent off just before halftime. Unfortunately for Sassuolo, they were unable to overcome their disadvantage, with substitute Aaron Ramsey, who replaced the injured McKennie, firing in the 82nd minute.

Ronaldo then sealed the three points in stoppage time, scoring his 15th goal of the season in the process.

While most goals for the 35-year-old are simply a case of adding another to his already remarkable tally, his latest is another reminder of the Portuguese star’s longevity.

With Sunday’s goal, Ronaldo became the only player to score at least 15 goals in each of the last 15 seasons in the top five leagues, having reached that mark in every campaign since 06-07. —