Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s sixth and likely final World Cup will be the first for the Portugal great since he left Europe to play in Saudi Arabia<\/p>\n
The surprise move in late 2022 shocked many in the soccer world and prompted widespread doubts about whether his form would be affected by facing lower-level competition.<\/p>\n
But Ronaldo, who turned 41 in February, has dismissed any notion of a drop in performance going into next month\u2019s showcase event. And, to help make his case, the goals have kept coming, both for Al Nassr and with Portugal.<\/p>\n
Portugal coach Roberto Mart\u00ednez said Ronaldo is as hungry as ever and doesn\u2019t see any signs that the star forward has slowed down after moving to Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
“He keeps performing and he keeps showing his value and he keeps showing that (he) is important for the national team,” Mart\u00ednez said. “To have that hunger when you\u2019ve won everything in the game is quite remarkable. And that\u2019s without getting away from the fact that to be in the national team you need to be somebody that can help the team now and not with what you\u2019ve done in the past.”<\/p>\n
Ronaldo and his longtime rival Lionel Messi are set to reach the milestone of playing in six World Cups. Ronaldo is the all-time leader in appearances (226) and goals (143) for a men’s national team. He is also the only man to have scored in five World Cups.<\/p>\n
[Messi Doubles MLS Base Salary: <\/strong><\/i>New Deal Earns More Than Twice As Much As Any Other Player<\/strong><\/i>]<\/strong><\/i><\/p>\n “Even though he\u2019s the captain, even though probably he\u2019s achieved what no other player in world football has achieved, which is the number of games for the national team, over 225 appearances, just with that number is a uniqueness about what he brings, but I think he has the same demands as any other player in the national team,” Mart\u00ednez said.<\/p>\n Ronaldo made the move to Saudi Arabia in the middle of the 2022-23 season after his latest stint with Manchester United, rejecting other offers to take up a reported salary of $200 million a year and “give a different vision of this country and football.” Ronaldo said at the time his work in Europe was done and he was ready for a “new challenge.”<\/p>\n Criticism immediately began to pour in, with many fans and pundits not liking what appeared to be his choice of taking the big Saudi money instead of continuing his career in elite soccer. Some said he was virtually retiring from competitive soccer.<\/p>\n Ronaldo has constantly praised the Saudi league, though, saying it\u2019s better than both the French and the Portuguese leagues. He said those who criticize him should go there and try to compete in temperatures of up to 40 degrees Celsius (104 F) and keep performing like he has.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t need to speak because they can say whatever they want, but the numbers don\u2019t lie,” Ronaldo said in an interview with Piers Morgan last year. “They’ve never been here, they’ve never played here … For me it\u2019s (easier) to score in Spain than score in Saudi (league).”<\/p>\n Cristiano Ronaldo of Al Nassr runs with the ball while under pressure from Ruben Neves of Al Hilal during the Saudi Pro League match between Al Nassr and Al Hilal. (Photo by Yasser Bakhsh\/Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p>\n Ronaldo\u2019s move away from Europe did not appear to affect his performances on the international stage with Portugal. He has kept playing at a high level since then, scoring 25 goals in his last 30 games with the national team.<\/p>\n Ronaldo went scoreless in five European Championship games in 2024 as Portugal reached the quarterfinals. In 2025, about two and a half years after he started playing in Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo helped Portugal win the Nations League title, with one of his eight goals in the competition coming in the final against Spain.<\/p>\n Ronaldo has maintained a top-notch physical condition despite just having turned 41. He was hindered by a hamstring injury sustained in late February but recovered quickly. On May 7, he was scoring his 100th Saudi Pro League goal in his 105th league appearances for Al Nassr, which has a chance to win its first league title since 2019.<\/p>\n “All the efforts (Cristiano) makes and what he does on the pitch, which he has experienced more than all of us together, which he puts in every day and every game, is unique,” Jo\u00e3o F\u00e9lix, Ronaldo\u2019s teammate with both Al Nassr and Portugal, told the Saudi Pro League earlier this year. “And that we see him, at 40 years old, doing what he does, only gives us more motivation.”<\/p>\n Ronaldo scored 14 goals in 16 matches in his debut season in Saudi Arabia in 2022-23. In his first full season, he netted 35 goals in 31 games, setting a new scoring record in the league. Al Nassr won its first Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023 thanks to a pair of goals by Ronaldo in the final.<\/p>\n In the 2024-25 season, Ronaldo scored 25 goals in 30 matches, and so far this season he has found the net 26 times in 29 appearances. He was the league\u2019s top scorer in both of his first two full seasons, and now is five goals shy of Al Ahli\u2019s Ivan Toney.<\/p>\n Ronaldo has said this will definitely be his last attempt at winning the World Cup, but it remains unclear for how long he will continue playing.<\/p>\n His coach with Portugal knows better not to make any guesses.<\/p>\n “It\u2019s difficult for me to say, because obviously I\u2019ve learned very quickly not to predict the future with Cristiano, just because he\u2019s got this elite brain about being the best that he can be today,” Mart\u00ednez said. “And I\u2019m thinking if you ask him, he\u2019ll tell you the same. He doesn\u2019t make plans.”<\/p>\n Reporting by The Associated Press.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" POPULAR SEARCHES BROWSE BY Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s sixth and likely final World Cup will be the first for the Portugal great since he left Europe to play in Saudi Arabia The surprise move in late 2022 shocked many in the soccer world and prompted widespread doubts about whether his form would be affected by facing lower-level […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":3886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3887","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\/3887","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=3887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/play-live.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}