Ronaldo opens up on 'breaking records' days after being overtaken by Messi

Manchester United forward Cristiano Ronaldo has opened up on 'breaking records' just days after Lionel Messi went ahead of him for the most non-penalty goals by a single player in football history.

Messi's recent goal against Lyon in Ligue 1 means the Argentine has now bagged 672 non-penalty goals in total, one ahead of Ronaldo, who has played 145 more games.

Ronaldo scored his first goal of the new campaign in United's 2-0 win over Sheriff in the Europa League last week. In contrast, Paris Saint-Germain attacker Messi has found the net six times in 11 appearances this season.

While the Portuguese captain still leads the all-time scoring charts with 816 to his name, ahead of Messi’s 775, his total contains 145 penalties, with Messi having converted 103 during his career.

Despite this, Ronaldo picked up an honorary accolade for being his country's record goal scorer during the Portuguese Football Federation's annual Quinas de Ouro awards ceremony on Tuesday night.

After receiving the award, the 37-year-old took to Instagram to explain how proud he was of his achievement, while thanking everyone that has helped him along the way.

Alongside a photo of himself with the trophy, Ronaldo wrote: "Proud to win the award for the best national scorer for the country that I love! Thanks again to all my teammates, coaches, my family, friends and all my fans who helped me to achieve this great achievement! Together we will continue to break all possible records! Thank you".

Ronaldo has played just one full 90 minutes for United all season, which came in the 4-0 loss to Brentford. The veteran frontman has been forced to settle for a place among the substitutes bench in recent weeks with Erik ten Hag preferring to start Marcus Rashford as the central striker amid Anthony Martial’s Achilles injury.