CRISTIANO Ronaldo was prancing about like an excited teenager at Real Madrid’s Valdebebas training ground on Monday — a complex passing drill had just gone to another level and he was at the heart of it.
There were six or seven spectacular volleys and then he played a headed one-two with team-mate Casemiro as the Real players showcased their skills during an elaborate game of piggy in the middle.
At 32, the only indication that Ronaldo is getting any older is in the type of record he is now going after — he is four goals from reaching 400 in all competitions for Madrid and he is just three league goals from going past Jimmy Greaves as the all-time top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues.
Greaves was on the front of Spanish newspaper AS on Monday. Alongside him was Ronaldo, whose goals have taken Real to within 180 minutes of their third Champions League final in four seasons.
Madrid scored six in their quarter-final victory over Bayern Munich and Ronaldo hit five of them. Once again when it mattered most, he delivered.
With 84 goals for Manchester United in the Premier League and 280 La Liga goals at Real Madrid, Ronaldo’s next strike will draw him level with Germany’s Gerd Muller. Three more will take him past Greaves on 366. His three goals for Sporting Lisbon are not counted, as Portugal’s Primeira Liga is not in Europe’s top five leagues according to UEFA coefficients.
Zinedine Zidane accepted yesterday that, aside from all arguments about where Ronaldo ‘the player’ ranks, Ronaldo ‘the goalscorer’ has no superiors.
The Real Madrid manager said: ‘I was fortunate enough to play with Ronaldo, the Brazilian one, and now I’m fortunate to coach Cristiano. I am envious because I never really had that as a player. I played passes but did not have that sensation of scoring so many.
‘You can’t question his finishing. The numbers speak for themselves.’
Ronaldo will have already written the script in his head — the strike that takes him through the 400-goal barrier in all competitions will come in Cardiff in the final on June 3, or it will be the goal that puts him there, scored next week in the Vicente Calderon.
If he achieves either, then he will have had an extraordinary 12 months, even by his standards. He won the Champions League in Milan last May and led Portugal to their first international trophy.
Full back Dani Carvajal was asked to compare Real Madrid’s most important player with Atletico Madrid’s star turn, Antoine Griezmann, and his answer was telling.
He said: ‘Last year Griezmann almost did a double by winning the Champions League and the Euros but he didn’t — Ronaldo did.’
That has been the story of the past three years of Ronaldo’s career — knocking back the young pretenders. Gareth Bale threatened his supremacy at Real but Ronaldo is still No 1.
He has answered critics who wondered how he would fare the other side of 30 by moving away from the touchline and closer to the goal.
And why wouldn’t the Sporting winger who became a Ballon d’Or forward at Manchester United finish his career as an orthodox centre forward? His numbers are already better than almost any No 9 who played the game.
Plotting to stop him in tonight’s semi-final is Atletico boss Diego Simeone, who did little to hide concerns over the influence of the Santiago Bernabeu on English referee Martin Atkinson.
He said: ‘It is not easy to referee with all the pressure that comes from the atmosphere. Hopefully he will go largely unnoticed.’
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