Cristiano Ronaldo has become the first man to score in five World Cup tournaments after opening the scoring for Portugal against Ghana on Thursday at Doha’s Stadium 974.
Portugal defeated Ghana 3-2.
The 37-year-old scored from the penalty spot on 65 minutes to etch his name in the history of the competition.
The Portugal captain, at the age of 37 years, 292 days, also became the second oldest player to score at the World Cup, behind Cameroon’s Roger Milla who was 42 years, 39 days when he scored against Russia in 1994.
Ronaldo is now the oldest player to score for a European nation at the World Cup, though, overtaking Sweden’s Gunnar Gren who was 37 years, 236 days in 1958.
Ronaldo’s goal is his 118th for Portugal.
Interestingly, his first World Cup goal on his debut in 2006 was from the penalty spot in a 2-0 win over Iran.
His next World Cup goal came four years later in South Africa in a 7-0 rout of North Korea. Ronaldo also scored in Portugal’s 2-1 win over Ghana in the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.
Ronaldo’s most successful World Cup campaign was in 2018 in Russia where he scored four goals, including a hat trick in a 3-3 draw with Spain.
He is now one strike away from equalling the country’s record set in the competition by Portugal legend Eusebio.
Eusebio helped Portugal secure a third-place finish at the 1966 World Cup in England, where he finished as the tournament’s top scorer with nine goals.