World football’s all-time leading goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo was always a great player, and therefore, he has faced legendary goalkeepers many a time.
The 39-year-old has broken many records in that respect including being the highest international scorer, the highest scorer in European leagues, the highest in Champions League and the highest scorer for Real Madrid. With over 900 senior career goals, it’s safe to assume that quite a number of goalkeepers – even some legendary ones – have had their share of woe up against him.
Here are the goalkeepers who have shipped 10+ goals against the Portuguese maestro.
10. Gustavo Munua – 10 goals
In his early years at the Real Madrid, Ronaldo met urnguayan ‘keeper Munua in eight matches.
Ronaldo on two occasions, netted three past Munua’s Levante, scoring twice in a Copa del Rey 8-0 bashing, in which Benzema also got three. Bad day at the office, that.
10. Gianluigi Buffon – 10 goals
The legendary Italian goalkeeper first faced Ronaldo when he was still playing for his national team at the Euro 2004 in group stages. The latter emerged victorious in that match, the Azzurri of course clinching a 2-1 victory and then slamming the burgeoning celebrity in theottie after changing at halftime.
Subsequently, they faced each other seven other times in Real Madrid- Juventus clashing periods in the 2013-2018 Champions League competitions. Ronaldo has found the back of the net every time he was in that position, including once in the 2017 Champions League final and of course his overhead kick in the quarters a year later.
10. Andres Fernandez – 10 goals
Ronaldo managed a hat-trick in the first meeting between the two when Madrid hammered Osasuna 7-1 and went on to score seven more goals in eight more games where he came face to face with Fernandez.
He has also made a hash of Ronaldo free-kick seeing the ball go through his legs in a 2-0 Copa del Rey finals.
10. Manuel Neuer – 10 goals
Apart from Buffon, Neuer is another goalkeeper whose name appeared in this list and never faced Ronaldo in a league match.
Only some of the keepers represented here by this graph have a reasonably decent goal against versus Ronaldo count, although many appear here simply because they played more games and minutes for their respective clubs. Similarly, it cannot be said of an exhilarating German World Cup and two times treble winner Neuer.
Neuer let in 10 goals in 9 appearances against Ronaldo and was scored five goals in two legs of 2017 Champions Legaue quarterfinals.
Ronaldo did not have things easy during his time on the pitch though. Neuer took his penalty when Bayern defeated Madrid in the Champions League semis last season, and he did not concede when Germany hammered Portugal 4-0 in the group stage of the 2014 World Cup.
10. Thibaut Courtois – 10 goals
The brilliant Belgian, arguably the best ‘keeper in world football right now, can console himself in knowing that all-time greats Buffon and Neuer havealso conceded 10 goals to Ronaldo.
Although Courtois left A Madrid early, he featured in eight Madrid derbies played between 2011 and 2014, squaring off against his skipper Ronaldo.
It was always a tightly contested duel, but LOS Blancas came out on top most of the time especially in 2014 Champions League final where with Ronaldo put one in from the spot. Last season he scored a memorable hat-trick that gave Barca a 4-1 victory over Real in a La Liga match in 2012.
6. Diego Alves – 11 goals
He was formerly known more as a penalty shootouts hero during his time at Valencia. Ibarra set a record in the penalties saved in the Spanish League with 22 of which three were against Ronaldo. That’s some going.
And yet despite that, Ronaldo was able to score past him 11 times in 12 matches. Actually, he was unable to capitalize on just the three times that he was up against Alves.
6. Hugo Lloris – 11 goals
A slightly surprising name, perhaps, given Ronaldo did not go back to the Premier League until the former France skipper was already past his best in Tottenham.
Ronaldo played at the two teams Manchester United and Spurs faced twice in a bid during the 2021-22 season with Reds winning at both grounds including a sensational 3-2 win over Spurs, Ronaldo showing his prowess with a hat-trick.
Before that specific season, the soccer gods had aligned to see Lloris and Ronaldo go head to head 13 times – Lyon played against Madrid in successive three UEFA champions league campaigns between 2009 and 2012, Portugal played France 5 times between 2015 and 2021 and Ronaldo played home and away against Tottenham in the UEFA champions league group stage of the season 2017-18.
6. Jan Oblak – 11 goals
That two great Atletico goalkeepers are both here speaks volumes about how lively Ronaldo gets in Madrid derbies. Cristiano Ronaldo hit past Oblak thrice with hat-tricks.
He also fought Atletico with Juventus and Manchester United, and Slovenia with Portugal – Oblak saved Ronaldo’s penalty in the recent Friends Euro 2024 but could not do so in the penalty shootout.
The two have clashed 21 times. These players have met Ronaldo more times than any ‘keeper in football history
3. Claudio Bravo – 12 goals
Ronaldo’s tally is not exactly surprising, given that he scored more goals in the El Clasico than anyone, excluding Lionel Messi, and yet Bravo is the only Barcelona goalkeeper included here.
Eight of Ronaldo’s 18 goals have been against Barça in La Liga at the Camp Nou and some of them were scored past this man - Victor Valdes who is not exactly in this list.
He netted three Clasico goals when Bravo was with Barcelona at Camp Nou, however, the rest of them he scored while with Real Sociedad – including one hat trick and three two goal hauls.
In fact, Bravo did not concede a single goal when playing against Ronaldo – the match Chile and Portugal ended in draw 0-0 in the Confederation Cup last year.
The two time Copa America champion was also the hero for Portugal saving all three penalties during the shootout as Ronaldo did not have to take one.
3. Sergio Alvarez – 12 goals
Celta Vigo defender Alvarez was up against Ronaldo nine times between 2012 and 2017. He was never happy with clean sheets and he only succeeded in stopping Los Blancos iconic no.7 twice.
Ronaldo managed to score two hat-tricks against him, and all those matches were held consecutively for each other. Brutal.
3. Ruben Martinez – 12 goals
All these players had a terrible time of it against Ronaldo, but none more so than Martinez who ended up on this list.
He went up against Ronaldo’s Madrid five times with five different clubs – Malaga, Rayo Vallecano, Almeria, Levante, Deportivo La Coruna – and lost all nine encounters.
The overall tally was 33-4 and with the Red Devils, Ronaldo had contributed with the tally of 12 goals. He had been scoring against Martinez, on average, once every 67 minutes and was particularly ruthless against one of his favorite targets during Real’s 4-0 thrashing of Malaga last year.
2. Javi Varas – 13 goals
Ronaldo and his eternal opponent Messi have also netted more goals against Sevilla than against any other team. Not that you will be shocked to find one of Rojiblancos representative anywhere near the top of this chart.
Varas who was born in Seville, played against Madrid only fivetimes for his childhood team. But they included two confrontations that ended 6-2, with Ronaldo netting four goals and three goals respectively.
Further, he admitted to having been beaten by Ronaldo by another five goals when representing the Celta Vigo and Las Palmas.
1. Gorka Iraizoz – 15 goals
Iraizoz was a model club player for Athletic Bilbao and served the club faithfully for a decade. He represented the Basque giants in La Liga for ten years scoring 223 goals from 307 league appearances.
For him, it meant coming up against Messi as well as Ronaldo at the peak of their powers on a fairly frequent basis. Gulp.
Second on the list is Messi with whom he has lost 18 times; Ronaldo is his personal bogey with 15 defeats.
He has played Madrid with the forward 14 times in the La Liga, although he did manage to match the European champions in two 1-0 successes in the San Mames stadium. More often than not he was on the receiving end – and received two big thrashings you might say.
Another four goals were scored during 5-0 and 5-1 victories in the Bernabeu and Ronaldo added nine more goals against Iraizoz.