Cristiano Ronaldo closes in on Jimmy Greaves' 46-year-old league goals record

Cristiano Ronaldo is once again poised to break another footballing record.

After recently scoring his 100th goal in the Champions League, the Real Madrid star is now just three goals away from surpassing Jimmy Greaves’ goal-scoring tally across Europe’s top five leagues.

Greaves scored 366 league goals during a 14-year career which saw him play for Chelsea, AC Milan, Tottenham and West Ham.

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It is a record that has stood for the last 46 years since his final goal for the Irons against West Brom in April 1971.

Ronaldo has technically surpassed Greaves’ tally but with three of his 367 league goals coming in Portugal, when the Premeira Liga was not deemed one of Europe’s top five leagues based on coefficient, he is still shy of the official all-time European league record.

The forward's 367 goals have come for three different clubs in three different leagues: three for Sporting Lisbon in the Primeira Liga, 84 for Manchester United in the Premier League and 280 for Real Madrid in La Liga.

Amazingly, the Portuguese still has 43 games to top Greaves’ tally, having played in 485 games compared to the former Tottenham player’s 528.

As ever, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi remains Ronaldo’s great rival.

The Argentine has scored 345 league goals – all of which have come for Barcelona in La Liga. As a result, he holds the Spanish league record.

Greaves still holds the English top-flight league record with 357 goals, 266 of which were scored during his nine-year stint at Tottenham.