Mohamed Salah has registered more than twice as many goals and more than twice as many assists for Liverpool in 300 appearances than Cristiano Ronaldo, when he hit the same milestone at Manchester United.
The 300th appearance for Liverpool’s Egyptian King didn’t go as he’d have hoped – a chastening 3-0 defeat at home to Nottingham Forest that leaves the Reds eight points off Premier League leaders Arsenal.
Ronaldo’s 300th appearance for the Red Devils, on the other hand, was something to celebrate – a memorable 3-2 comeback victory over Atalanta in the Champions League, in which he scored the late match-winner with a trademark header.
While Salah is now into his ninth season at Anfield, Ronaldo didn’t reach the milestone of his 300th match for Manchester United until his second stint at the club, having returned to Old Trafford after 12 years away in 2021.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner didn’t quite make it to 300 appearances in his first, legendary, spell there. He made his 292nd appearance for the club in the 2009 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, moving to Real Madrid for a world-record fee later that summer.
There’s a key difference there, if we’re being entirely fair when it comes to this comparison.
Ronaldo was 18 years old, still very raw and developing his game, when he arrived at Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon in the summer of 2003.
He wasn’t especially prolific when it came to his output in those early years, famously failing to score in his first 26 appearances in the Champions League – some going for a player who now tops the all-time top scorers list.
Salah, in contrast, was 25 years of age when he signed for Liverpool in 2018, having honed his skills at Basel, Fiorentina and Roma, bouncing back from an unsuccessful spell at Chelsea.
With all that in mind, the numbers are still incredibly stark – Ronaldo developed into a world-beater at Manchester United, won his first Ballon d’Or, and would still get into many people’s all-time best Premier League XI.
For Salah to have notched literally twice as many goals and assists is quite something.
Here’s how Salah’s stats after 300 Liverpool appearances compare to Ronaldo’s after the same number of games for Manchester United:
Mohamed Salah – Liverpool
Goals: 250 ⭐
Assists: 116 ⭐
Goals + assists: 366 ⭐
Penalties: 45 ⭐
Minutes per goal: 136⭐
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 166⭐
Minutes per goal or assist: 93⭐
Cristiano Ronaldo – Manchester United
Goals: 124
Assists: 52
Goals + assists: 176
Penalties: 17
Minutes per goal: 185
Minutes per non-penalty goal: 215
Minutes per goal or assist: 130
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