Cristiano Ronaldo breaks the world record – it has now become very common news in world football. The 37-year-old Portuguese legend now started the FIFA World Cup 2022 by creating two new World Cup histories. Apart from becoming the first male player to score in five different FIFA World Cup editions, Cristiano Ronaldo also created a new history of winning the most Man of the Match awards in this competition's history.
Portugal started the FIFA World Cup 2022 with a thrilling 3-2 win against Ghana in the Group H encounter. In the 65th minute of that game, Ronaldo opened the scoreline by scoring from a penalty kick.
Later, Ghana legend Andre Ayew equalled that scoreline in 73 minutes. While Joao Felix and Rafael Leao scored back-to-back two goals for Portugal in 78 minutes and 80 minutes respectively, Osman Bukhari made the scoreline 3-2 with a goal in 89 minutes. At the last moment of that game, Inaki Williams missed a golden chance for Ghana. So, Portugal luckily ended that game as a winner.
Cristiano Ronaldo: Scoring in most FIFA World Cup tournaments (5 editions)
That successful penalty was Ronaldo’s first goal in the FIFA World Cup 2022 and the eighth goal in his FIFA World Cup career. With his latest goal, CR7 became the first male player to score in five different FIFA World Cup tournaments. After scoring in 2006 (1 goal in 6 games), 2010 (1 goal in 4 games), 2014 (1 goal in 3 games) and 2018 (4 goals in 4 games) World Cup editions, he just started the 2022 competition with a goal (1 goal in 1 match).
In his 18 World Cup appearances in five editions, CR7 scored seven goals.
However, Ronaldo is the fifth male footballer to play in five different FIFA World Cups. The other names in this list are Mexican Antonio Carbajal (1950, 1954, 1958, 1962 and 1966), German Lothar Matthäus (1982, 1986, 1990, 1994 and 1998), Mexican Rafael Márquez (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018) and Argentine Lionel Messi (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022).
Also Read | Cristiano Ronaldo Becomes 4th Manchester United Player To Score 100 Premier League Goals
Ronaldo equalled Marta and Christine Sinclair’s records
However, previously, Brazilian legend Marta (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019) and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair (2003, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2019) achieved the feat of scoring in five different FIFA Women’s World Cups.
Cristiano Ronaldo: 7 World Cup Man of the Match awards – Most World Cup Man of the Match awards
On the other hand, surpassing Argentine legend Lionel Messi and former Dutch footballer Arjen Robben (both won six World Cup Man of the Match awards), Cristiano Ronaldo won his seventh World Cup Man of the Match award at the end of the Ghana match and became the first player to win more than six Man of the Match awards in World Cup history. Even the FIFA Women’s World Cup has the highest Player of the Match awards record of five (Brazilian Marta, Japanese Aya Miyama and American Carli Lloyd).
