Cristiano Ronaldo: Facing the Final Chapter of His World Cup Journey
Cristiano Ronaldo sat down, took aim at the question everyone had been circling, and didn’t flinch.
“I am not the player I used to be.”
On the eve of Portugal’s World Cup last-16 tie with Spain in Texas, the 41-year-old met the scrutiny head-on. This is his sixth World Cup, his last by his own confirmation, and perhaps his final night on this stage. He has three goals in the tournament, yet his influence has never been more hotly debated.
The numbers say one thing. The legend says another. Ronaldo, as ever, refuses to let anyone else write the ending.
‘You’ve been trying to kill me for 23 years’
He walked into the press room with the aura that has followed him for more than two decades. He walked out to applause. In between, he delivered a reminder that he remains in charge of his own story.
“I’m not doing too bad,” he said when asked about his future and the criticism that has followed him past his 40th birthday. “You have been trying to kill me for the past 23 years, but you must have seen that is not worth it, it’s a waste of time, but you try and try and try and try and try.
“As I said before, [I will stop] when I choose, not when you choose. You always ask the same question.
“This will be my last World Cup, but let’s hope tomorrow isn’t my last game.”
Seven months from turning 42, the end is in sight. The captain, the symbol, the driving force of the Euro 2016 champions is closer to his final bow than his next peak. His sister has already called this tournament his “last dance”. He has confirmed it himself.
And yet, he remains central to everything.
A penalty, a substitution, and a reminder
Against Croatia in the last 32 in Toronto, Ronaldo stood one goal away from a different kind of ending. When Ivan Perisic struck in the 53rd minute, there was a genuine sense this could be it – Ronaldo’s 232nd appearance for Portugal, and his last.
He stepped up from the spot to equalise, his first ever goal in the World Cup knockout rounds. Under the weight of the moment, the old certainty returned. One touch in the box. One ruthless finish.
Then Roberto Martinez made the call.
Ronaldo came off. He did not look pleased. The cameras lingered on his face as he walked to the touchline, jaw set, eyes cold. But the move worked. Goncalo Ramos, the man widely seen as his natural heir, came on and sent Portugal through in a chaotic finale.
That decision has carried straight into the build-up for Spain. Should Ronaldo start in Texas? Or has Ramos earned the right to lead the line?
The debate is no longer theoretical. It is urgent, and it is loaded with emotion.
‘I will leave with a clear conscience’
Ronaldo insists his legacy is already insulated from whatever happens next.
“I am not going to be more Cristiano Ronaldo or less because I win the World Cup,” he said. “I even say thanks for the attacks I feel after I turned 40… the criticism is how you grow, so thank you for doing this.
“Whatever happens tomorrow, Cristiano Ronaldo will leave with a clear conscience – not 100% but 1,000% because in life and football I gave everything.”
No one can dispute his impact. With 146 international goals, he is the all-time leading scorer in men’s international football. He has dragged Portugal into a new era, reshaping the country’s mentality and expectations. For years, he arrived at tournaments with an untouchable status. Now, calls for him to accept a reduced role grow louder.
Antonio Simoes, part of the Portugal side that finished third at the 1966 World Cup, did not hold back.
“He doesn’t play to win, he plays to be the main figure,” Simoes argued. “Do you understand that it’s the opposite of Eusebio? Let’s call things by their name. I have nothing against him. I can still see, I can still hear and I can still think. But I can’t run away from the reality of the facts.”
The reality is complicated.
Six World Cups, one unbroken scoring streak
Ronaldo has scored at all six World Cups he has played in, stretching across two decades and multiple footballing eras.
- A penalty against Iran in 2006.
- A goal versus North Korea in Cape Town in 2010.
- A solitary strike against Ghana in Brasilia in 2014.
- The explosive hat-trick against Spain in Sochi in 2018, followed five days later by the winner against Morocco in Moscow.
- A penalty against Ghana in Qatar in 2022.
In the United States and Canada this time, he has three more: two in a 5-0 dismantling of Uzbekistan in Houston on 23 June, and that pressure-soaked penalty against Croatia in Toronto.
Martinez, who took over in 2023 after leaving Belgium, has nailed his colours to the mast.
“His leadership and that work in the final third is still one of the best in the world,” the Portugal head coach said when asked why Ronaldo continues to start.
He has used him relentlessly. Since Martinez’s appointment, Ronaldo has featured in 36 of Portugal’s 44 matches, missing most of the others only through injury or suspension.
Yet the games he has missed have fuelled the counter-argument.
Portugal’s biggest win of this cycle, a 9-0 demolition of Luxembourg in Faro in September 2023, came without him. Their second-biggest, a 9-1 thrashing of Armenia in Porto last November, also came in his absence.
Each time, the same question resurfaced: are Portugal more fluid, more unpredictable, more dangerous without their captain?
The numbers that don’t flatter
Strip away the romance and the picture shifts. Ronaldo is Portugal’s top scorer at this World Cup with three goals, but his underlying stats are far from flattering.
He has taken 15 shots, almost twice as many as any of his team-mates, yet has not created a single chance. No other player at this World Cup has taken as many shots without fashioning an opportunity for someone else.
Touches tell another story. In three of Portugal’s four matches, Ronaldo has had fewer than 25 touches – including one game from the bench – the lowest figures of his World Cup career. Across the tournament, he is averaging his fewest touches per match at any World Cup.
Against Croatia, his only touch in the opposition box was the winning penalty.
His movement has dipped too. He is averaging just 4.4 runs in behind the defence per match, significantly down on his output at the previous two World Cups, even though he is still being used as a lone striker.
The data suggests a player increasingly confined to moments rather than 90-minute influence. But this is Cristiano Ronaldo. Moments have always been his currency.
‘He should dictate whether he wants to stay on’
For many Portugal supporters, the numbers don’t carry the final word. Emotion does.
“I feel he should dictate whether he wants to stay on or not,” said Angelo, a fan outside the stadium before the Croatia match. “What he has done for Portugal as a nation, he should dictate that 100%.”
That sentiment runs deep. Ronaldo is more than a footballer to many. He is the boy from Madeira who dragged a small country into the global spotlight, who made Portugal a permanent fixture in the latter stages of major tournaments, who made generations dream.
Global icon. National treasure. Those labels follow him everywhere.
Ronaldo-mania, still raging
Anyone who thought Ronaldo-mania might fade with age has not been paying attention.
In Toronto, it was almost unusual to see a Portugal shirt without his name on the back. Before the Croatia game, excitement spilled onto the streets. Fans clogged one of the city’s main highways, desperate for a glimpse of the superstar.
Even those indifferent to football felt the pull.
My taxi driver from the airport to the hotel did not follow the sport. He knew exactly who was in town.
“The local TV and radio have been going nuts about him for days,” he said. “He must be special.”
One local fan said she had spent an entire month’s wages on a match ticket, just for the chance to see him in the flesh at a World Cup.
For supporters, this is not just about goals. It is about presence.
“On the world stage we didn’t really have anyone after Eusebio,” said Joao, draped in a Portugal flag. “Ronaldo came in and made us dream.”
Lucilia, another fan, put it even more starkly.
“People talk about Portugal because of him. He doesn’t forget where he’s from, he remembers the people. I love him. Ronaldo means more to Portugal than any politician.”
Diana, standing nearby, was already bracing for the day he finally walks away from the national team.
“Of course I’m going to be sad,” she said. “The whole world will be sad because it doesn’t matter who you support. Ronaldo has had a wonderful career and been an exemplary player.
“I would say to him: ‘Well done, Cristiano. Enjoy your retirement. You deserve it after entertaining the world.’”
One more start, or one last stand?
This is the crossroads. Martinez must decide whether to back the man who has defined an era, or to tilt towards the future and reward Ramos for his decisive impact against Croatia.
Start Ronaldo, and you lean into history, leadership, the fear he still puts into defenders and the belief he inspires in his own dressing room. Leave him out, and you risk a seismic rupture – but maybe gain the mobility and pressing that the numbers hint Portugal lack with him on the pitch.
Ronaldo has already made his peace. He insists he will leave with his conscience “1,000%” clear. He has given everything. He knows it. So does his country.
Now comes Spain, and with it a simple, brutal possibility.
Is this just another knockout tie for Cristiano Ronaldo – or the last time the world watches him walk out in Portugal colours at a World Cup?
