Cristiano Ronaldo: When Man Utd star took part in awful free-kick routine at Juventus

Cristiano Ronaldo has scored a number of brilliant free-kicks during his professional football career.

The Manchester United star has scored over 50 free-kicks in his time, so of course, there were bound to be some spectacular efforts.

There was the 39-yard strike against Atletico Madrid in 2012, that seemed to wobble and swerve in an unbelievable fashion as it made its way into the bottom corner of the net, past a frozen Thibaut Courtois.

And who could forget the 35-yard knuckleball that flew into the top corner past Portsmouth’s then-goalkeeper David James, during the forward’s first stint at Manchester United?

But Ronaldo’s relationship with free-kicks has been a rollercoaster throughout his career.

Early in his career, the forward was lauded for his free-kick ability. He was known as an unstoppable marksman with a dead ball at his feet.

At one point the Portuguese scored six free-kicks in a single season for Real Madrid, but it hasn’t always been plain sailing.

Ronaldo has gone through periods in his career with a quite frankly horrific conversion rate from free-kicks. During his spell at Juventus, it took the 37-year-old 43 attempts before he finally put one in the back of the net for The Old Lady.

During Euro 2020, Ronaldo was mocked after a free-kick he took for Portugal flew miles wide of the goal and into the empty stands, fans discussed at the time whether it was the worst free-kick of his career.

But before that, during his time at Juventus, the Portugal international was involved in one of the worst free-kick routines of all time.

The word routine is important here because Ronaldo’s strike was not a direct free-kick, but was part of a set play between himself and Miralem Pjanic, who rolled the ball in front