Cristiano Ronaldo has had an iconic career in which he’s scored over 800 goals and pulled off some memorable celebrations, to which he added two more celebratory moves in Al Nassr’s recent win over Al Shabab in the Saudi Pro League.
The 37-year-old has had an amazing start to the new Saudi Pro League season, scoring five goals in four appearances – which included a brace against Al Shabab. The Portuguese forward (kinda) broke the internet and send his fans into a frenzy by debuting what appeared to be two new celebrations in the game.
The new Cristiano Ronaldo celebrations
After scoring one of the goals, Ronaldo seemingly brought down a ‘heart sign celebration’ where he could be seen making the shape of a heart with his arms and showing his love for the fans. But he wasn’t done pulling off the moves just then.
Soon after that, the 38-year-old also brought out what appeared to be another unique goal celebration. This one was mostly a case of him vibing with the energy of the crowd, pulling off a slick dance move to celebrate with his teammates.
Over the last few years, Cristiano Ronaldo made the ‘SIUUU’ celebration an iconic one, but even before that one, Ronaldo had a number of stone-cold celebratory moves.
The first few memorable goal celebrations from Ronaldo
One of the first memorable celebrations that Ronaldo was during his first stint at Manchester United. While it wasn’t something he created, the iconic no.7 loved to take off his shirt and passionately celebrate with the fans after scoring crucial goals. In fact, Ronaldo debuted this celebration after scoring his first professional goal with Sporting CP and has done it a lot of times in his career.
As Cristiano grew more familiar at United, he formed a special bond with the fans. During his ‘peak years’ at the club, he went with a simple ‘finger point‘ celebration at the crowd after scoring goals.
The Real Madrid years
Ronaldo changed up his style after moving to Real Madrid and developed a loveable relationship with left-back Marcelo. That era delivered some of the best Ronaldo-Marcelo celebrations.
As the Portuguese forward gained more experience (and developed more haters) he decided to silence his doubters in spectacular fashion using his celebrations. He formed a brilliant little formation in which he would point at himself, almost like an indication of ‘I’m the best’ celebration to the fans.
Ronaldo also decided to pay homage to his first son (Cristiano Jr) during his years at Real Madrid with a ‘claw’ celebration. It was apparently a nod at his (then) toddler son’s habits of clawing a lot of things, which is why Cristiano made two claws with his hands before squeezing it.
One of Ronaldo’s most iconic celebrations was also created during his time at Real Madrid. In a crucial El Clasico against Barcelona, the Portuguese forward decided to shush the harassing Barca fans with a ‘calma’ celebration in which he urged them to just calm down in the coldest way possible.
10 years ago today, Cristiano Ronaldo silenced 90,000 Barcelona fans at Camp Nou and hit the iconic 'Calma' celebration 🤫 pic.twitter.com/fP31YG7TmD
As he grew more experienced at Madrid, Cristiano kept changing up his celebration style and also did the ‘thinker’ celebration for a period. In this, he’s go down in a sitting position and stares directly at the camera with his hand on his chin.
Four years ago, Ronaldo launched "The Thinker" celebration after scoring a hatrick.
Another sweet little celebration he did for a while was during the first leg of the 2016-17 Champions League semi-finals against Atletico Madrid. After scoring against them, the Portuguese forward simply just sat on a hoarding board to capture himself as a ‘king’ at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The ‘sleeping’ celebration
After developing the ‘SIUU’ celebration, Ronaldo continued to use that after goals since his move to Juventus. However, in his second spell at Old Trafford, he also debuted another brilliant little celebration.
Following his goal in the win over Everton at Goodison Park in the 2022-23 season, Ronaldo ditched the ‘SIUU’ to just stand with his eyes closed, head back and his fingers crossed to his chest. It appears that this was a self-depreciating joke about the position in which he slept while travelling with the squad in buses or airplanes.
Ronaldo has enjoyed an iconic career and his goal celebrations probably deserve a Hall of Fame in their own right, as it remains to be seen if the Portuguese legend creates any more new celebratory moves before hanging up his boots.
