Real Madrid: Ranking the 10 best Cristiano Ronaldo goals with the club

8.Fantastic free-kick vs Marseille, 8th December 2009

It was Ronaldo’s first season with Real Madrid, and despite performing very well in the initial stages of the season, he was yet to give a complete introduction of his abilities to the Real Madrid fans. He was brought in for a fee of 90 million, which was a work record then, and the expectations were sky-high. He had just recovered from an ankle injury due to which he had missed 10 games in all competitions, and it was important for him to regain his form quickly.

It was the last group stage game, away to Marseille. He got a free-kick in the 5th minute. He had a reputation for scoring some excellent knuckleball freekicks, and he had already scored two of them in a game against Zurich in the same competition. As Ronaldo was shaping up to take the strike, there was a flurry of whistles in the stadium, but those whistles were made out of fear.

“There’s a fair amount of worry amongst the Marseille supporters and why not?? It is absolutely magnificent! Right out of the top draw from Cristiano Ronaldo, and Marseille, early on in trouble.”

These words from Martin Tyler are enough to describe the situation of the stadium when Ronaldo scored the freekick. It was an extraordinary freekick from the Portuguese, who used the knuckleball technique to perfection to convert this freekick from a relatively long distance. The swerve was perfect, and though the keeper got his fingertips onto the ball he couldn’t save it.