Ronaldo's Fantasy Price Analysed - is he Worth it?

Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal records speak for itself, as the 36-year-old is the only player in football history to have won the Golden Boot in the Premier League, La Liga and Serie A.

Last season the Portuguese forward outscored the likes of Chelsea’s Romelu Lukaku who inspired Inter to their first league title in over a decade, hammering in 29 goals in 33 league matches, six more than the Belgian in three less appearances, whilst both took six penalties each last campaign.

The United man’s goalscoring record last season stacks up against the very best, as his 29 league goals in 2,803 minutes was a better strike rate than Lionel Messi’s at Barcelona, as the Argentinian managed just one more goal in 219 more minutes. The Portuguese forward managed 36 goals in 44 games across all competitions last season.

In the summer, Ronaldo also finished as the Golden Boot winner at Euro 2020, scoring five and assisting one of Portugal’s seven goals in the tournament as they crashed out in the Round of 16 to Belgium following a goalkeeping error by Rui Patricio from a Thorgan Hazard strike. Ronaldo’s goals at the European Championships meant that he became the all-time top scorer in the history of the competition, as well as level the all-time top international football goalscorer with 109 in 179 appearances.

Ronaldo’s Premier League record currently stands at 84 goals in 196 appearances, although he was far from the finished product when he arrived at Old Trafford from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2003 and he used to play as an out and out right-winger rather than the central goalscoring phenomenon which he has become. In the 2006/07 and 2007/08 seasons we saw Ronaldo’s game significantly alter as he scored 17 in 34 following the exit of Ruud van Nistelrooy to Real Madrid, before further excelling his game alongside Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney the following campaign with 31 goals in 34 league matches as United went on to win the Premier League, Champions League and the 36-year-old managed to earn his first of five Ballon d’Ors.

United’s new signing has scored 783 goals in 1074 career appearances, of which 139 have been penalties, which is a duty he may well take off Bruno Fernandes, whilst 56 have been free-kicks, 446 of the Portuguese forward’s goals have been scored with his right-foot, compared to 123 with his left and the 36-year-old has managed to bag 115 headers.

Last season, Ronaldo managed four assists in 44 matches due to his central role up-front as a lone striker which concentrates more on goalscoring, he also managed one assist at the Euros. Both sides which the 36-year-old played in were relatively dysfunctional, hence why Portugal scraped a win against Hungary at the Puskas Arena, before being hammered 4-2 by Germany and drawing 2-2 with France before being knocked out in the Round of 16. The same can be said for a Juve side that lacked creativity under Andrea Pirlo, finishing fourth. Their first two games of this season have seen the Old Lady draw 2-2 with Udinese and lose 1-0 at home to Empoli.

In six years at United in his first spell, Ronaldo created 34 league assists out of the 226 he has managed across his career so far. The United man’s best season in the Premier League assist wise saw him make eight in the 2006/07 campaign, compared to the six he managed in each of the following two seasons.

Last season, Ronaldo managed to earn himself eight Man of the Match awards in the Serie A with Juventus, showing that anyone who is willing to invest 12.5 points to get him on Fantasy Football may reap the rewards from bonus points.

In Summary, Ronaldo is 0.2 more points than Harry Kane and worth one more point than the likes of Lukaku. Kane’s assist record is significantly better than that which Ronaldo had at Juventus, as Portugal’s captain managed 22 in 134 games, whilst was the top Premier League assist maker with 14 last time out, managing 37 goal contributions compared to Ronaldo’s 31 which was six worse than his 2019/20 season with Juve although the squads quality was much greater prior to Pirlo’s turnover of players. Meanwhile, Salah has managed 27 and 29 goal contributions across the last two seasons, meaning that Ronaldo is worthwhile getting if you can fit him in your team.