Cristiano Ronaldo is a freak athlete. That much is known and has been proven time and time again throughout his illustrious career, first for Manchester United, then for Real Madrid, and now for Juventus.

Still, the Portuguese player’s insane winning goal against Sampdoria last night in Italy’s Serie A left a lot of people scratching their heads and totally in awe of the 34-year old’s physical capabilities.

To win the game against Sampdoria, Ronaldo leaped off the ground to head the ball into the net, rising above the defender and staying airborne for a reported one and a half seconds. If the hang time didn’t impress you (which it should), Ronaldo’s reported height of two and a half meters might, considering that’s higher than the crossbar which stands at 2.44 meters. See for yourself below.

This isn’t the first time Ronaldo has soared through the air to score a goal. For Manchester United, CR7 hammered home a header against AS Roma in the Champions League and, incredibly, leapt even higher to score for Portugal during EURO 2016.

The reactions were a mix of awe, bewilderment, and disbelief. Sampdoria coach Claudio Ranieri said after the game: “Ronaldo did something that you see in the NBA; he was up in the air for an hour and a half. There’s nothing you can say about it, you can only congratulate him and move on.”

Reactions online were also wild, check out some of the best below.

?? This picture of Cristiano Ronaldo’s goal against Sampodria tonight is absolutely insane. 2.56m in the air when he connected with the header (8ft 5 in the air). This man is a freak athlete. Air Cristiano. ✈️ pic.twitter.com/YBs6R8gdm9 — FutbolBible (@FutbolBible) December 18, 2019

A better view of Ronaldo’s header! Look at the Jump and how long he stayed in the air, and the placing of the ball!! ?? pic.twitter.com/6gZtDbPRmx — JAGS (@EtniesJags) December 18, 2019

Peak highlight of El Classico has to be that Ronaldo header against Sampdoria — 3MuskerBeards (@kenyan_parody) December 18, 2019

Ronaldo what a f**king header!!! My man is flying! pic.twitter.com/P3ngptZDxe — TMDB (@dbmt51) December 18, 2019

If Roy Keane was doing punditry on this he'd say the only reason Ronaldo needed to defy gravity like that is because he timed his jump wrong in the first place pic.twitter.com/912z6kUy98 — Evan Fanning (@evanfanning) December 18, 2019

… is it a bird ? ? … is it plane ✈ ? noooo..! it's Cristiano Ronaldo ??#SampdoriaJuventus pic.twitter.com/SzYGpVzCb3 — Decardi Jr. (@decardinell) December 18, 2019

Will never, ever understand how Ronaldo can get so much height on his jumps. Superhuman. — Liam Canning (@LiamPaulCanning) December 18, 2019

Ronaldo has just scored a far post header where his feet were higher than the crossbar….it’s only a slight exaggeration. Ridiculous leap. — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) December 18, 2019

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