Cristiano Ronaldo: An improved scoring machine

When Cristiano Ronaldo ended the 2011/12 season with 60 goals, it seemed unlikely that he would achieve such a remarkable feat in a very long time. Five months later, and after only 11 official games, the Portuguese is on course to break all the records he set last season. He has currently netted 14 times, which represents the best goal scoring start of his career, beating the 10 he scored at the beginning of the 2010/11 season.

Cristiano Ronaldo: A scoring machine

Thus far this season, Real Madrid have played 11 games in 3 competitions. They have scored 25 goals in these games and 14 have been scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, or 56 %. The number 7 opened his account in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup, a tie in which he was the outstanding player as he scored another goal in the return leg. He didn’t score his first league goal until the third round of fixtures, but has since become the leading goal scorer in the team, netting 8 times. Lastly, goals have also come his way in the two Champions league games he has played, and he is now leading the way in the goal scoring charts with 4 goals.

In his previous 11 campaigns as a professional, Cristiano had never managed to score as many goals in the first 11 official games. His best start for either Sporting Lisbon or Manchester United was just 2 goals. Since he signed for Real Madrid, he has considerably improved on this figure. In 2009 and 2011 he scored 9 goals in 11 games, while in 2010, he scored 10, which was his best until this season.

If we talk about his numbers at Real Madrid, we can realise that at the Camp Nou, Cristiano Ronaldo scored his 160th and 161st competitive goals in a Real Madrid shirt. Raul took 16 seasons to reach 323 goals, the club's all-time record, while the Portuguese has racked up half this tally (49.8%) in little over three years. Cristiano is presently the ninth top marksman in Madrid history, having passed Amancio Amaro – who clocked up 155 in 14 seasons – in the game against Deportivo.

However, it is Ronaldo's scoring rate that truly singles him out: in his three full campaigns with the club so far, he has managed an astonishing 48.6 goals a season. In other words, while Raul required 741 competitive fixtures to set his lifetime mark, Cristiano has gobbled up half the ground separating him from the Spanish legend in just 155 games.

Of the eight players still ahead of CR7 in Madrid's all-time scoring stakes (Butragueño and Pirri, who are tied on 171, will be next to be overtaken by the Madeira star), only Ferenc Puskas (0.92 goals a game) stacks up against the Portuguese forward's deadly strike rate.