Real Madrid's pre-season began with a 4–1 victory over
MLS team
Los Angeles Galaxy,
[106] with goals from
Callejón,
Joselu, Ronaldo, and
Benzema.
[107] Four days later Ronaldo scored a second half
hat-trick in a 3–0 win against
Guadalajara.
Ronaldo's preseason performance was highly praised as world media kept
hailing Ronaldo's extreme competitiveness and motivation, even during
friendly matches. On 17 August 2011, Ronaldo scored his 100th goal with
Real Madrid with a first-half equaliser against
Barcelona in the second leg of the 2011
Spanish Supercup in the
Camp Nou. On 27 August 2011, he opened the
2011–12 La Liga season with a hat-trick in a 6–0 win at
Real Zaragoza.
In the first weeks of September, Ronaldo's physical performance was subject to scrutiny by world media, after
Castrol released a
television film named
Ronaldo: Tested to the Limit
where he was put to test in several fields, including mental and
physical. Conclusions from the movie and doctors in the weeks following
claimed that Ronaldo was one of the best athletes in the world,
excelling in football and outstanding in almost every other category.
[citation needed] Several sources
[weasel words] drew comparisons between him and other top athletes, including sprinter
Usain Bolt.
[citation needed] On 24 September, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick (including two penalties) in Real Madrid's 6–2 win over
Rayo Vallecano at the Santiago Bernabéu. This was his ninth
La Liga hat-trick and tenth hat-trick for Real Madrid.
On 27 September, Ronaldo scored Real's opening goal in a 3–0 victory over
Ajax at the
Santiago Bernabéu in the
UEFA Champions League.
On 22 October, after not scoring in his previous three games, Ronaldo
scored his tenth La Liga hat-trick and eleventh in total for Real Madrid
in a match away to
Málaga, which Real Madrid won 4–0. His twelfth Real Madrid hat-trick followed on 6 November, in a 7–1 victory over
Osasuna that ensured Madrid stayed top of the table heading into the international break.
[108] On 19 November 2011, Ronaldo scored Real's second goal in a 2–3 defeat of
Valencia. On 26 November 2011, Ronaldo scored two penalties in a 4–1 defeat of
Atlético Madrid in the
El Derbi madrileño. On 3 December 2011, Ronaldo scored Madrid's second goal in a 0–3 defeat of
Sporting de Gijón in
La Liga. He was one of the three finalists for the
2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or. On 13 December 2011, Ronaldo scored the second goal against
SD Ponferradina in the first leg of the
Copa del Rey Round 4, the match ended in a 0–2 win. On 17 December 2011, Ronaldo scored his twelfth
La Liga hat-trick and thirteenth overall in a 6–2 win away to
Sevilla.
Ronaldo was third in the 2010–11
UEFA Best Player in Europe Award, behind
Lionel Messi and
Xavi, and second in the
2011 FIFA Ballon d'Or, behind Lionel Messi and ahead of Xavi. In Real Madrid's next game in La Liga at home to
Granada Ronaldo scored the fifth goal in a 5–1 win. He was notably criticised in the public media
[who?] for not celebrating the goal. On 22 January 2012, Ronaldo scored two penalties in a 4–1 win over
Athletic Bilbao, and on 28 January scored Real Madrid's second and winning goal in a 3–1 win against
Zaragoza. Ronaldo also scored two goals against
Barcelona in the
Copa del Rey
Quarter-finals, which Real lost 4–3 on aggregrate. On 12 February 2012,
Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, his thirteenth in La Liga and fourteenth
for Real Madrid, in a 4–2 home win over Levante. This win stretched Real
Madrid's lead over second-placed Barcelona to 10 points.
On 24 March 2012, Ronaldo reached more than 100 goals in La Liga in
just three season at Real Madrid when he scored the first of his two
goals in the match against
Real Sociedad, the second quickest
La Liga player to reach that milestone in the league after
Isidro Lángara, reaching the milestone in 92 matches and breaking the previous club record held by Puskás.
[109] As of 24 March 2012, Ronaldo had averaged 1.01 goals per game in La Liga.
On 11 April, Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against
Atletico Madrid
in a 1–4 win, as well as assisting the last goal. His hat-trick, one
goal from a free kick, one from 30 yards on the left wing and one
penalty, gave him 40 league goals in the season, making him the only
player in La Liga history, or in any other major European league, to
score 40 goals in two seasons, even doing so in consecutive seasons.
Ronaldo officially broke his previous record of 40 goals in a La Liga
season on 14 April, scoring in a 3–1 win against
Sporting Gijón.
On 13 May 2012, the last matchday, Ronaldo scored against
Mallorca which made him the first player ever to score against every team in a single season in La Liga.
He finished the season with a total of 46 league goals and 60 goals in
every competition, breaking the Real Madrid record he had set the
previous season. In May, Ronaldo claimed that he believed that he had
played better than Lionel Messi this season,
[110] and on 13 June, he won the
Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano as the best
La Liga player of the season.