Cristiano Ronaldo will not want to stop without a World Cup win that allows him to emulate eternal rival Lionel Messi, the Portuguese’s former Manchester United team-mate Kleberson has told GOAL.<\/p>\n
Ronaldo has already passed his 40th birthday and signed a contract extension with Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr that will take him to the summer of 2027. He has been showing no sign of slowing down and is expected to grace another major international tournament this summer.<\/p>\n
The five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner remains captain of his country, with a record-setting tally of 143 goals to his name, and is as hungry as ever for tangible success. He saw Messi conquer the world with Argentina in 2022 and will be determined to ensure that he does not bow out without a similar entry being made on his glittering CV.<\/p>\n
Quizzed on how desperate Ronaldo will be to capture a global crown, 2002 World Cup winner Kleberson – speaking in association with BetVictor Online Casino<\/i> – told GOAL<\/strong>: “Inside of him he probably feels \u2018gosh, I have to win the World Cup, I can\u2019t finish my career like this\u2019.<\/p>\n “He has to work hard. It\u2019s not just him, it\u2019s other players. Neymar also is probably thinking \u2018Messi has a World Cup, I don\u2019t\u2019. [Erling] Haaland as well, he might not get a World Cup. It\u2019s inside players, inside these top players.<\/p>\n “Look at Adriano – he\u2019s a big name in Brazil, in Italy he played at a great level, but he hasn\u2019t won the World Cup. The World Cup is sometimes fair, sometimes unfair. I believe those guys look at me and think \u2018oh my gosh, I can\u2019t believe Kleberson has a World Cup and I haven\u2019t!\u2019 I don\u2019t have five Ballons\u2019 d\u2019Or, but I have won the World Cup!”<\/p>\n Kleberson got to witness Ronaldo\u2019s initial rise towards superstardom at close quarters when joining Premier League giants United in the same summer of 2003. Asked if it was clear back then what CR7 would become, the ex-Brazil international said: “It\u2019s all down to him. We knew that he was a good player. You could see that the kid was really good – great with the ball, good personality.<\/p>\n “But to look at him and be like \u2018five Ballons d\u2019Or, plays in finals, wins everything\u2019… he has proved himself over a long period. It\u2019s not like one or two seasons. If you take my career, I had my best moments between 2000 and 2003, then I got my injury at Man United. I had great moments, played at a good level with good players. Then I got unlucky with injuries and didn\u2019t get time to get back to that level until about 2008 to 2010. Then it went down again.<\/p>\n “Cristiano is still the same. He is still getting titles and trophies. I\u2019m so glad to have been able to work with him in the beginning because I\u2019m happy to see how he has grown as a man, with his family – he\u2019s taken care of his mum, his sister. He has a great story in football.”<\/p>\n That fairytale may still have several more chapters to be written, with Ronaldo offering no indication that imminent retirement is in his thoughts. He is being tipped by some to play on to Euro 2028 and beyond.<\/p>\n Asked if Ronaldo could continue towards the age of 50, Kleberson said: “With this kid, I can\u2019t rule anything out! I met him when he was 17\/18 years old, in 2003. We talked a lot because we wanted to speak Portuguese. We could see the things that he wanted in his life, and he hasn\u2019t changed that. He is still the same.<\/p>\n “If there is something that Cristiano Ronaldo has, it is mental strength. His mentality is so powerful. Then he takes care of himself a lot – his body, the way he plays.<\/p>\n “When you watch him now, he is not like Cristiano Ronaldo of years ago, but he still has an impact. We can say \u2018it\u2019s the Saudi league, it\u2019s not a great league\u2019, but you can see that he plays at a good level. He is one that could move to MLS in the future. If he wants to play at 50, he can do it! He\u2019s in great shape.”<\/p>\n Ronaldo is currently chasing down 1,000 career goals, with that remarkable milestone very much within reach. He has also expressed a desire to play alongside his son Cristiano Jr at some stage, with it important for a player of his calibre to continue setting targets that keep his competitive fire burning after already achieving so much.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Cristiano Ronaldo will not want to stop without a World Cup win that allows him to emulate eternal rival Lionel Messi, the Portuguese’s former Manchester United team-mate Kleberson has told GOAL. Ronaldo has already passed his 40th birthday and signed a contract extension with Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2594,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-soccer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}