Ronaldo becomes first player to score in six World Cups with goal against Uzbekistan

Cris­tiano Ronal­do be­came the first play­er to score in six dif­fer­ent World Cup tour­na­ments on Tues­day, get­ting a goal in the sixth minute of Por­tu­gal’s match against Uzbek­istan.

The 41-year-old Ronal­do made his­to­ry when João Can­ce­lo crossed it to him and he shot with his right foot to make it 1-0. He ran to­ward the bench and cel­e­brat­ed with his team­mates af­ter the score.

The goal makes him the sec­ond-old­est play­er to score at a World Cup be­hind Cameroon for­ward Roger Mil­la, who was 42 when he scored at the 1994 tour­na­ment in the Unit­ed States.

Ronal­do’s goal comes af­ter he was crit­i­cized for fail­ing to score in Por­tu­gal’s 1-1 draw against Con­go in the team’s open­ing match.

Ronal­do and Ar­genti­na cap­tain Li­onel Mes­si be­came the on­ly men in his­to­ry to play in six World Cup tour­na­ments this year. Ronal­do’s scor­ing streak start­ed in his de­but in 2006 and he al­so net­ted goals in 2010, 2014, 2018 and 2022.

While he shares the record for most tour­na­ments with Mes­si, he stands alone in scor­ing a goal in each edi­tion af­ter Mes­si failed to score a goal at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

Ronal­do’s goal Tues­day gave him nine goals in the tour­na­ment. Mes­si has 18 af­ter a hat trick in Ar­genti­na’s open­er against Al­ge­ria and two more goals Mon­day against Aus­tria that made him the all-time lead­ing scor­er in tour­na­ment his­to­ry.

Tues­day’s game was the 230th of Ronal­do’s in­ter­na­tion­al ca­reer, which is the most in his­to­ry.

This is like­ly to be the fi­nal World Cup for Ronal­do, who won the Eu­ro­pean Cham­pi­onship with Por­tu­gal in 2016 and the Cham­pi­ons League five times with Man­ches­ter Unit­ed and Re­al Madrid.