This Cristiano Ronaldo stat will SHOCK you

There is a Cristiano Ronaldo goalscoring stat that will shock and astound his fans and maybe even his critics.

Despite scoring in all but one of his appearances in the league this season, Cristiano Ronaldo has not scored an open play goal for Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League since August.

He headed home a Sadio Mané cross in the season opening draw with Al-Raed but none of his five goals in six games since then have been from open play.

Cristiano scored a free-kick against Al-Fayha, was shut-out by Al-Ahli and then scored four penalties in four games, making it no non-penalty goals in the league since August.

To be fair to him, Ronaldo has scored one non-penalty goal for Al-Nassr since August, in the AFC Champions League Elite against Al-Rayyan.

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He also had two open play goals in the Saudi Super Cup (in August), bringing his total for the season up to nine goals in 12 games.

Of those nine, four were from open play, four were penalties, and then there was the solitary free-kick strike.

At 39 years-old, Cristiano Ronaldo is showing strong enough signs of ageing that he can't even dominate the Saudi Pro League anymore. He scored 50 goals in 51 games last season and, allowing for the lower standard of competition, looked dominant.

Misstiano Penaldo: a goalscorer in decline?

Cristiano Ronaldo made headlines recently as his missed penalty led to Al-Nassr's elimination in the Round of 16 of the 2024 King's Cup.

Al-Nassr were losing 1-0 when they were awarded a penalty in the 96th minute of their cup tie against Al-Taawoun. Ronaldo stepped up to take it and despite 907 career goals for club and country, he missed.

Because of that miss, Al-Nassr were dumped out of the cup. Meanwhile back in the Pro League they are six points behind league leaders Al-Hilal.

Their next opponent? Al-Hilal, who have won every single league match they have played so far this season. A perfect eight wins from eight.

Should Ronaldo and Al-Nassr fail to win they could be as many as nine points off top spot and Al-Hilal would have made a fantastic start to their title defence.

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And the signs aren't positive. Ronaldo has faced Al-Hilal on six different occasions, losing five times and drawing just once. Ronaldo also has just one goal, and that came in a 4-1 defeat in the Saudi Super Cup final.

Ronaldo's stated aim is to reach 1,000 career goals for club and country. For that he needs to scored 93 more goals.

While you wouldn't put it past him, at 39 years-old and relying on penalties for half his goals this season, Ronaldo appears to be a goalscorer in serious decline and that bodes ill for his dream of 1,000 goals.