The first ever 48 nation World Cup kicks off with the impending end of football’s greatest player rivalry featuring prominently in the back drop of the festivities that will play out majorly in the political theatre of the world.
The Last Dance is the theme for Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi at this year’s World Cup and as the world readies to celebrate Messi’s final bow on the biggest stage, there isn’t much attached to Ronaldo. When discussing Ronaldo at this year’s World Cup, celebration is far from the overriding theme but it is rather that of a question phrase-is this the year he finally wins it?
10 goal contributions (eight goals and two assists) in 22 appearances on football’s biggest stage is far from shabby for a man who is arguably the greatest footballer of all time but dig deep and you see something that belies the greatness of Cristiano Ronaldo.
A hat-trick against Spain in a group stage encounter remains the highest point in the Portuguese superstar’s run at the World Cup and that fine outing at the 2018 World Cup accounted for half of his overall goal scoring output in the competition’s history.
Beyond that night in Sochi in Russia and another group stage goal against Morocco, Ronaldo has scored just a goal in each of his four other World Cup appearances.
Two of such goals have come against Ghana at the 2014 World Cup and 2022 edition and despite not facing Ghana at the group stage in this year’s tournament, Portugal could play against Ghana in the Round of 32 stage.
This basic statistical line embodies Ronaldo’s frustrating relationship with the World Cup. While Messi’s run to the 2022 World Cup triumph was equally filled with a lot of disappointments that even led to the Inter Miami star retiring from the Argentine National Team, he at least had a great run at the 2014 World Cup where he lost in the final to Germany; for Ronaldo, that hasn’t been the case.
Portugal – Frankreich
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) mit dem EM Pokal auf dem Kopf (Photo by Pressefoto Ulmerullstein bild via Getty Images)
Unlike all other competitions he has played in, the World Cup is the only one that he is yet to crack. From winning league titles in England, Italy, Spain and Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo has won titles at club level on the continental stage (Europe) and even conquered the world by winning the hitherto version of the FIFA Club World Cup.
With Portugal, he won the country’s first ever title by lifting the 2016 European title and followed it up by winning the 2019 and 2025 UEFA Nations League. In all of Portugal’s title triumph runs, Ronaldo was inevitably front and centre in ending Portugal’s title drought but the Euros triumph in 2016 was achieved with the then Real Madrid man on the sidelines after exiting the game with a knee injury.
For long spells in the tense game against host nation France, Ronaldo stood side by side with then head coach Fernando Santos barking instructions to see the nation finally win after getting close many times only to come up short.
(Photo by Mustafa Yalcin/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
That poignant moment needs to be revisited and reflected on as Portugal makes another attempt to conquer the world with whispers lingering on how Portugal could be better than what it is now should Ronaldo not feature as a starter.
Starting Ronaldo comes with immense benefits as the Al-Nassr striker is the ultimate decoy with opposing defenders keyed in on him, teammates get more space to hurt opponents. He still is a brilliant finisher who scored five goals in five World Cup qualification games but having Ronaldo as a starter has its downside as Portugal fail to fully maximize its brilliant collection of talents by force feeding Ronaldo making them predictable and very beatable.
Due to Ronaldo’s drop off in pace, teams are willing to play a high offside line to contain Portugal’s brilliant midfield believing that they can catch up to Ronaldo should he slip through the offside trap and that is aside the limited pressure he is able to apply on opposing team’s defensive lines allowing them to consistently advance beyond Portugal’s forward line more freely.
In this year’s World Cup, Spain has the best goalkeeping unit, the Netherlands have the best defensive unit, France has the best forward line and Portugal has the best midfield unit that is anchored by PSG’s Vitinha and Joao Neves and the English Premier League’s Best Player Bruno Fernandes. Vitinha and Neves were key in PSG’s successful defense of the UEFA Champions League but one aspect of the French club’s success was down to the egalitarian style of its offense.
Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, Ousmane Dembele and Desire Doue shared the goal scoring responsibility brilliantly with Bradley Barcola and Goncalo Ramos chipping in crucial contributions. That is the way PSG head coach Luis Enrique wants his team to play and it is for this reason he clashed with Kylian Mbappe by preferring four players to score 12 goals apiece than have one player score 40.
Interestingly, since his exit to Real Madrid, Mbappe has won Spain’s League top scorer award twice in two years and Madrid has gone trophy less during this period while PSG have won the UEFA Champions League title twice in a row. This example was explicitly played out when Ronaldo was suspended and Portugal hammered Armenia 9-1 in a 2026 World Cup qualifier with Bruno Fernandes and Joao Neves scoring hat-trick of goals apiece. In a funny twist of fate, Ronaldo is Mbappe’s football idol.
The PSG way should be the template for Portugal at this World Cup which is realistically Ronaldo’s last shot at winning the world title. Win the title with Ronaldo playing a peripheral role and the team delivering on its massive promise or funnel everything to Ronaldo to rack up numbers and placate to his ego but miss out on playing to their utmost strength.
Like PSG, it all starts with the coach and unlike Luis Enrique who drew the line in the sand, Portugal needs head coach Roberto Martinez to stop over pleasing his veteran stars in Bernardo Silva and Ronaldo and do what’s best for the team by not starting either. Bruno, Neves and Vitinha provide the right balance for Martinez’s team and playing two mobility limited players in Silva and Ronaldo hurts this balance.
Fernando Santos did what was impossible for Portugal by winning the European championship but even this reverence wasn’t enough to save him from the backlash that came with dropping Ronaldo from the starting lineup for some games at the 2022 World Cup.
It will take a monumental, earth shaking boldness for Martinez to bench Ronaldo because Portugal football and Ronaldo are literally married after the Portuguese Federation signed a deal with a fitness recovery company this year (AVA CR7) that is owned by Ronaldo.
Martinez can’t drop Ronaldo so it is up to the latter to take a back seat, have the young horses carry him as he has done for them for over a decade and deliver the clutch moments as he knows best to get Portugal to win the World Cup. For Cristiano Ronaldo to realize his World Cup dream, he needs to have a look in the mirror.
