July 12, (THEWILL) –Â The incredible Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who made the European goal-scoring record a part of his personal collection at the just-concluded continental competition, also ended up as the Euro 2020 Top Scorer, although Portugal did not defend their title.
Portugal was knocked out after only four games and in the very first game of the knockout stages of the tournament when they lost to Group B leaders from the group stages, Belgium, by a lone goal. Yet, averaging about two goals a match, Ronaldo still ranked at the top of the goal-scoring charts to finish as the Alipay Top Scorer.
The 36-year-old started the scoring with a late brace against Hungary that helped Portugal to a 3-nil victory and saw Ronaldo match and overtake Michel Platini as all-time Euro top scorer. The goals took his all-time Euro finals tally to a new record of 11. Not done with that, Ronaldo added one more to his total with the opening goal of the 4-2 loss to Germany on Matchday 2.
But the Juventus striker was still hungry for more. In the last match of Group F, the so-called “Group of Death”, Ronaldo gave Portugal the chance to progress to the next round with another brace from the penalty spot for a 2-all draw against World Cup champions France.
He did not score any more goals but his total from the continental competition this year brought his international tally to a staggering 109 goals. In that metric, the Portuguese football icon drew equal with the world-record mark set by former Iran forward Ali Daei, the former captain of the Iran national football team between 2000 and 2006.
In the Euro 2020, Czech Republic’s Patrik Schick, who helped his side advance as far as the quarter-finals with his collection of a record-equalling five goals at the finals like Ronaldo, did not get to jointly win with the Portuguese because Ronaldo had an edge.
Ronaldo finished ahead of the Bayer Leverkusen Czech striker, even if he played far fewer games, thanks to his assist against Germany. As sensational as Schick was for the Czech, he did not register a single assist while Ronaldo’s assist in the match against Germany took the Portuguese’s goal involvement to six, one better than Schick’s record.
Previous winners of the Top Scorer Euro competition have been:
2016: Antoine Griezmann (France) 6 goals
2012: Fernando Torres (Spain) 3 goals
2008: David Villa (Spain) 4 goals
2004: Milan Baroš (Czech Republic) 5 goals
2000: Patrick Kluivert (Netherlands), Savo Milošević (Yugoslavia) 5 goals
1996: Alan Shearer (England) 5 goals
1992: Dennis Bergkamp (Netherlands), Thomas Brolin (Sweden), Henrik Larsen (Denmark), Karl-Heinz Riedle (Germany) 3 goals
1988: Marco van Basten (Netherlands) 5 goals
1984: Michel Platini (France) 9 goals
1980: Klaus Allofs (West Germany) 3 goals
1976: Dieter Müller (West Germany) 4 goals
1972: Gerd Müller (West Germany) 4 goals
1968: Dragan Džajić (Yugoslavia) 2 goals
1964: Ferenc Bene (Hungary), DezsÅ‘ Novák (Hungary), Jesús MarÃa Pereda (Spain) 2 goals
1960: Milan Galić (Yugoslavia), François Heutte (France), Valentin Ivanov (Soviet Union), Dražan Jerković (Yugoslavia), Viktor Ponedelnik (Soviet Union) 2 goals
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
