Many strikers have a shelf or perhaps a cabinet to show off their hat-trick match ball collection. Cristiano Ronaldo needs a new house for his.
The former Manchester United superstar hit the 50th of his career on Sunday evening as Real Madrid defeated Girona 6-3 at the Bernabeu.
Ronaldo scored four of Real’s six goals to reach yet another personal landmark in an illustrious career that shows no sign of slowing down.
The 33-year-old now has 37 goals for Real Madrid this season and a grand total of 566 club goals during his career. When goals for Portugal are included, he has scored a pretty astonishing 645.
Ronaldo has scored hat-tricks with such regularity it threatens to cheapen the achievement for everyone else. But how does the half-century break down?
He scored just the one hat-trick for Manchester United but now has 44 for Real Madrid. Five for Portugal takes us to the 50 mark.
Seven have come in the Champions League, two in the Copa del Rey and one in the FIFA Club World Cup. For Portugal, four were scored in World Cup qualification and one in European Championship qualification.
Ronaldo’s quartet against Girona was the ninth occasion he has hit four in a match, while he has scored five in a game twice.
The quintets came in a 9-1 drubbing of Granada in La Liga in April 2015 and a 6-0 away rout of Espanyol in September 2015.
In terms of opponents, Sevilla are the most sick of Ronaldo – he has scored three goals against them on five separate occasions.
You have to go back to January 2008 for Ronaldo’s first hat-trick at senior level and that proved to be his one and only for United.
He netted three in a 6-0 thrashing of Newcastle United at Old Trafford in the Premier League, part of an incredible 2007-08 campaign in which he scored 42 goals as United won the Premier League and the Champions League.
