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Opinion: Cristiano Ronaldo is the best header striker ever

Pavel I. Meda
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After his latest goal against Torino in Serie A, we can easily say that Cristiano Ronaldo is the best header striker in football history.

One of the aspects of Cristiano Ronaldo’s game that can’t be matched by Lionel Messi is his skill to score a header.

The Portuguese forward has a potent jump upwards that very few players in football history possess, he also knows the best way to score goals with this specific skill.

Modern football has given us many great players who can score a great header, but none of them even comes close to Cristiano Ronaldo’s unique ability.

The Juventus forward played the Turin Derby on Friday and scored the equalizer with a beautiful header, this was his 601st goal at club level.

This goal gave Juventus one point and prevented Torino from getting a spot in the Top Four, but are two more important stats the Portuguese forward tackled.

The first one and most obvious is the one that places him within a small distance of another individual accolade.

WhoScored confirms that Cristiano Ronaldo reached his 21st Serie A goal this season, a number that ties him with Krzysztof Piątek and Duvan Zapata with the same amount of goals.

Both strikers still have to play on the weekend and they will have a chance to move away from Ronaldo at the top of the Serie A goal-scoring table.

However, Fabio Cuagliarella is still ahead of all three forwards with 23 goals. The Sampdoria striker also plays on the weekend against Parma.

Ronaldo’s historical record as a professional.

Now that we’ve moved past the domestic record that Ronaldo reached, it’s time to move on to the history books.

Cristiano has scored a total of 125 headers throughout his career for both club and country, 100 of which he just reached last night at club level with his goal against Torino.

The Portuguese forward has scored many great headers during his time as a professional, but there are three that stand out apart from the one he scored on Friday at club level.

The first was the one he scored against AS Roma in the Champions League during the 2007-08 season, this was an impressive strike that gave us Ronaldo coming in as a missile.

The second one came later during the same season, it happened in the Champions League final against Chelsea and it gave Manchester United the chance to keep playing the match until the end.

The last header we mostly remember out of those 100 that he scored, is the one he got back in 2011 against FC Barcelona during the Copa del Rey final.

This header meant that Real Madrid won a trophy against the most powerful Barcelona side in football history, Cristiano celebrated it as if he just scored a World Cup final goal.

Very few players can be compared to Ronaldo when it comes to headers, but we are going to make an effort.

Players who come near Ronaldo’s headers.

Throughout football history, we have a few players who can be compared to Cristiano Ronaldo when it comes to scoring headers.

We start with German striker Oliver Bierhoff, who scored many headers throughout his career but doesn’t come close to Ronaldo’s numbers.

Another great header striker was the also German Uwe Seeler, who scored over 500 goals with Hamburg and many of those were headers of all kinds.

Despite his short stature, Seeler is considered one of the best headers of the ball who ever lived. We have another two players to complete the ones who could come close to Ronaldo.

We need to mention legendary Dixie Dean, who scored many great headers throughout his career in English football.

And last but never least, Pele stands as the player who comes closer to Ronaldo when it comes to scoring headers.

This freak of nature elevated himself above the ground to heights that were only surpassed by the Portuguese forward.

However, Cristiano has the better overall technique and also better numbers than King Pele.

Ronaldo is a player who has scored 100+ goals with his head and both of his legs, this automatically turns him into the most complete player in football history.

What do you think about Cristiano Ronaldo’s technique to score headers? Please share your opinion in the comment section down below.