Scoring 40 goals a year, Ronaldo still bows to the Southeast Asian legend

Cristiano Ronaldo scored 40 goals in 2025, the year he turned 40. Yet, this special feat has not exceeded the record set by a footballer from Singapore.

During 2025, covering the latter half of the 2024/25 season and the first half of the 2025/26 season – Ronaldo scored 32 goals at the club level. Specifically, he scored 13 goals in the current season and 19 in the previous one, all while playing for Al Nassr.

Additionally, throughout 2025, the former Juventus player contributed 8 goals for the Portugal national team. Combining both club and country, Ronaldo reached a total of 40 goals.

This is an extremely impressive accomplishment, especially considering Ronaldo's age. Since 2007 – spanning 18 consecutive years – he has scored at least 40 goals annually.

Nevertheless, Ronaldo’s record still does not surpass that of Singaporean player Aleksandar Duric. The 55-year-old former striker scored as many as 47 goals after turning 40.

Duric set this record back in 2009, 16 years ago. That year, he scored all 47 goals for the Singapore Armed Forces FC (later known as Warriors FC), having already retired from international duty.

Duric is a legendary striker in Singapore, who helped the national team win the AFF Cup in 2012. Furthermore, the forward born in 1970 won the Singapore Armed Forces championship four consecutive times, the S.League three times in a row, and the Singapore Cup twice. He was also named S.League MVP three times and was the league’s top scorer on four occasions.

However, Duric is not the highest-scoring player over 40. Some media outlets claim that Ciel, or Cielton Santos Silva, holds the record for the most goals scored by an older player.

This Brazilian striker is believed to have scored 60 goals at age 40. However, those goals were not scored in Brazil’s top-tier league, unlike the cases of Duric and Ronaldo.