Three hundred, but who’s counting?

How many goals does it take before a striker stops being counted in goals and starts being counted in eras?

The answer, for Scott Crichton, appears to be 300. The 35-year-old reached the milestone during the 2062/63 season, a campaign that saw him add to a career total now standing at 300 club goals in 742 appearances. He has done it across seven clubs, in a career that began in 2042/43 and has not yet ended.

There was no grand announcement, no stoppage in play to mark the occasion. Crichton’s 300th passed with the same understatement that has characterised a career of relentless accumulation. He has now scored 100 goals for Scotland in 143 caps, too, a ratio of 0.70 that would stand out in any era.

But it is the club figure that frames the question. Three hundred goals is a number that separates the very good from the enduring. It is a number that requires longevity, consistency, and a certain refusal to slow down. Crichton has played for seven clubs, which suggests movement, but the goals have followed him everywhere.

At Real Madrid FC, where he currently plies his trade, the milestone was met with little more than a nod. Madrid’s 7–0 victory over FCSM in March, which completed a 9–1 aggregate win in the Champions League last 16, showed the range of their attack. Crichton was part of that, as he has been part of so many scorelines.

The numbers do not lie. 742 games, 300 goals. That is a goal every 2.47 games, a rate that would be respectable for a single season, let alone a career spanning two decades. And yet, for Crichton, it has never been about the individual tally. The goals have come as part of something larger: a team’s progress, a club’s ambitions, a nation’s hopes.

There is no need to list the clubs, the seasons, the individual feats. The number says it all. 300. And counting.