Ronaldo loves to score the goals. He’s the best in the business and the one Juventus rely on to find the back of the net. It’s what forces him to fire in more shots than average.
But to say that Ronaldo is selfish for not assisting or helping his teammates more is harsh. The Portuguese is tasked with scoring the goals, not creating chances. All 11 players on the team have their own roles to fill, which is what Cristiano tries to do.
He’s not a glory-seeker, just somebody burdened with having to provide most of the goals for his team.
Look at Lionel Messi at Barcelona.
He’s had Luis Suarez, Neymar, Samuel Eto’o, David Villa, Thierry Henry and so on for teammates. All of them are brilliant goalscorers in their own right, meaning Messi hasn’t always needed to score.
Real Madrid, in comparison, have only had Karim Benzema to regularly chip in the goals since Ronaldo’s exit.
Champions League assists
So is it fair to look down on Ronaldo in this respect? Just one look at his stats for club and country tells us a very different story.
The forward has managed 626 goals and 219 assists in 838 games for Sporting CP, Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus.
On the international stage for Portugal, meanwhile, Ronaldo has scored 99 goals and assisted 41 times in 164 appearances. This brings his career total up to 725 goals and 260 assists.
For a man who apparently only shots all the time, 260 assists is incredible. It’s more than what some of the greatest assist-makers of all-time accomplished in their club careers, such as Xavi Hernandez (184) and Andres Iniesta (153).
Ronaldo has made the most assists in Champions League history.
| Pos | Player | Assists |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 40 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 35 |
| 3 | Ryan Giggs | 31 |
| 4 | Xavi Hernandez | 30 |
| 5 | Andres Iniesta | 29 |
| 6 | Angel Di Maria | 28 |
| 7 | Karim Benzema | 27 |
| 8 | Cesc Fabregas | 26 |
| 9 | Luis Suarez | 26 |
| 10 | Zlatan Ibrahimovic | 26 |
According to UEFA, the Portuguese star has assisted his teammates on 40 occasions in Europe’s biggest club competition. That’s five more than Messi and a further four more than Ryan Giggs’ tally.
Ronaldo is also the record goalscorer in Champions League history.
| Pos | Player | Goals |
| 1 | Cristiano Ronaldo | 129 |
| 2 | Lionel Messi | 114 |
| 3 | Raul Gonzalez | 71 |
| 4 | Karim Benzema | 64 |
| 5 | Robert Lewandowski | 64 |
| 6 | Ruud van Nistelrooy | 60 |
| 7 | Andriy Shevchenko | 59 |
| 8 | Thierry Henry | 51 |
| 9 | Filippo Inzaghi | 50 |
| 10 | Alfredo Di Stefano | 49 |
