René van der Gijp has a simple fix for the Ronaldo 1,000-goal saga: stick him in a friendly, let him bag 27, and be done with it. The Dutch pundit isn't mincing words about what he's watching in Saudi Arabia.
"He's playing like shit at the moment," Van der Gijp said on Vandaag Inside. "It doesn't look good any more. This is going to take so long."
Hard to argue with the math. Ronaldo sits on 973 career goals. He has three in seven matches this season — a pace that, if it holds, would see him reach the milestone sometime deep into 2026. Last season he scored 30 in 37 for Al Nassr. The drop-off is real.
The 1,000-goal milestone is becoming a weight
Ronaldo has never been shy about the target. At the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai in December 2025 — where he picked up a second consecutive best player in the Middle East award — he said it plainly: "I want to reach that number you all know: 1,000 goals. I will definitely reach that number, if I do not get any injuries."
The confidence is vintage Ronaldo. The form, less so.
Three goals in seven games is a thin return for a player whose entire remaining footballing identity is built around chasing a number. His contract at Al Nassr runs until mid-2027, so the time is there — but the urgency in his performances, apparently, isn't. Anyone backing him in the Saudi Pro League top scorer market this season might want to reassess.
Van der Gijp's joke about a friendly hatrick-fest is tongue-in-cheek, but it lands because it captures a real tension: Ronaldo the phenomenon and Ronaldo the current footballer are increasingly different things. One is chasing history. The other, right now, is grinding through a Saudi season at a goal every two-and-a-bit games.
"I am motivated. My passion is great and I want to continue," Ronaldo said in December. Whether the legs agree is another question entirely.
