Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo believes that he has already secured his place in football history, and it’s difficult to disagree with him.
The Portuguese international is regarded by many as the best player of his generation, although that hasn’t necessarily always translated into him being a popular figure.
Nevertheless, with 93 goals in the Champions League in his career thus far, that’s all the evidence he needs as he insisted that his name is already written in football folklore.
“I don’t doubt that I will go down in footballing history,” he told UEFA’s official website. “Whether people like it or not, the numbers speak for themselves.
“I will be up there with the rest. Some like it more, some like it less, but I have no doubt that I’m already in the history of football.
“I always felt that I was a special player, ever since I was starting out at Sporting. I felt that sooner or later I would be a top-level professional. I never thought it would come so fast, but I was preparing myself because, like I said, the talent was there.”
Whether you like the 31-year-old or not, or perhaps perceive his confidence as arrogance, there is no debating the incredible numbers that he has put up during the course of his career, particularly with Manchester United and Real Madrid.
To put it into some form of context, Ronaldo has scored 17 league goals or more in the last 10 seasons, bagging 40 plus on three occasions with a staggering 48 goals in the 2014/15 campaign.
He has constantly delivered at a high level, remained fit and clear of injuries for the most part during that period and has had a relentless desire to stay at the top for over a decade in his pursuit of securing his own personal legacy and winning trophies for his respective teams.
As he now faces another difficult task on Wednesday night with his side looking to advance to the Champions League final at the expense of Manchester City, he will hope to add to his haul of 16 goals in the competition already.
Ronaldo is one goal short of the record of total goals in a single Champions League campaign, set by none other than himself two years ago, and if you don’t like his personality, you have to at least respect what he does on the pitch.