>> To read this story in german, click here.
Cristiano Ronaldo is the first player to score more than 50 goals per season in four successive years (including League games, European games, national cup and Super cup). His 50th goal was especially worth watching. And although Ronaldo's health is in doubt, the season is not over yet. Real Madrid is scheduled to play three more games.
With 50 goals, Ronaldo will for the first time be the most successful goalscorer in one season worldwide. During the last four years he was surpassed by Luis Suarez once, Lionel Messi three times. During the 2009/10 season he scored the as many goals as the Argentinian.
Ronaldo's performance since his third year with Manchester United is particularly impressive: The Portuguese scored more than 20 goals a season. Most footballers never come near this season's quota over their entire career.
Looking back over the years, the 2008/09 season can be termed a «crash» with only 26 goals scored. This can be explained with his ankle injury and ongoing pain during the first part of the season.
Some people may claim Ronaldo is past his peak. Two years ago he scored 60 goals, last season 55 and this time 50 at the moment. But if he recovers from his injury, he is still able to equalize that mark.
Although those figures are already impressive, it gets really astonishing when comparing Ronaldo's average of 1,09 goals per game with teams from Europe's top leagues. Incredibly, 36 out of 96 teams from Spain, England, Germany, France, Italy and Switzerland score fewer goals as a side than Ronaldo. In Spain that includes almost half the league: Levante, Espanyol, Malaga, Elche, Granada, Valladolid, Getafe, Osasuna and Real Betis.
In the Premier League it is Crystal Palace, West Ham, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Hull City, Norwich City, Fulham FC and Cardiff City that fall short of Cristiano's average. Add to that seven teams from France's Ligue 1 and Italy's Serie A. At least the Germans can only claim the two teams Braunschweig and Nurnberg from the bottom of the table to be displaying a worse average.
