Copy linkFacebookXPinterestEmailShare this article 0Join the conversationFollow usAdd us as a preferred source on GoogleNewsletterSubscribe to our newsletterThe year is 2026. Cristiano Ronaldo shuffles Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha and Bernardo Silva away from a dead ball, standing over it himself; corkscrew posture, a breath deep enough to submerge himself from reality. The captain shimmies to his left a step, gallops towards the ball, and blasts it.Of course, it floats into orbit. Nike adverts aside, every Cristiano Ronaldo free-kick you've seen has done so for at least five years.And which one we're describing in particular hardly matters. You've seen enough clips by now of 41-year-old Ronaldo impersonating 21-year-old Ronaldo: the stutters, the stopovers, the stance a little stiffer with age. By now, it feels like the Ronaldo free-kick memes have been in power longer than Ronaldo was ever a set-piece master. For anyone who adored the version of this player in 2006, it feels a little sad.There's no shame in ageing: the world has changed a lot in those two decades. Portugal have won their first international trophy in that time. UEFA have invented a whole new competition, which Portugal has gone and won twice. The nation go into tournaments now not as a dark horse, in the mould of a Netherlands or Belgium, but as one of the genuine superpowers in world football, considered stronger, player for player, than Brazil. That would have seemed utterly bananas even when Ronaldo made his debut.The man himself has been busy in that time, too. He's netted over 900 career goals, won five Ballons d'Or and won a Euros. Yet, perhaps crucially, Lionel Messi has won eight, and lifted a World Cup. And so, Ronaldo clings on, like Mufasa to a rock face, until he can copy that.The signs were always there that something like this could happen. Not celebrating team-mates' goals. Getting carried off in the Euro 2016 final, insisting on coaching the team from the sidelines, and manager Fernando Santos looking far too afraid to tell his captain to sit down. Going so far as to try and steal a goal scored by Bruno Fernandes at World Cup 2022, only for technology within the ball to debunk the conspiracy. 2026 Ronaldo is something else entirely. A man who looks like a body double. An anchor of an ego to which manager Roberto Martinez is tethering his good ship Portugal to, seemingly unaware that he can drag the crew down with him, as he has in Turin and Manchester. Those who still back the legend point to a title win in Saudi Arabia, the glowing endorsement of Martinez who is free to drop him at any time and most importantly and impressively, his 13 goals since Euro 2024 ended. Now that, no one can argue with.Cristiano Ronaldo, aged 41, they'll tell you, is your average Miroslav Klose or Davor Suker in their prime. Goals win games, and no one in history has ever delivered on the promise of that premise quite as emphatically. Until the wheels fall off might be some players' cue for retirement: according to the numbers on the page, the wheels are very much still a-spinning.No, goals have not been the problem since Ronaldo left Real Madrid. Over 100 in three years at Juventus; a one-in-two return back at Manchester United. It's more of an all-round game that's the issue and that's an issue in itself, trying to argue with cold, hard stats. But all-round game was a problem in 2022, when Ronaldo was inexplicably (to him, at least) dropped in favour of Goncalo Ramos, who popped up with a hat-trick in his absence. Ronaldo is now four years older, and arguably four years worse. It was a problem at Juve, when a dynasty died at his feet. It was a problem when Old Gunnar Solskjaer's team spectacularly crumbled after steady process, having added this particular piece to the engine.For those with eyes to see, Ronaldo has never been a natural lone centre-forward. He was a winger, then an inside forward, and then Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane paired him with Karim Benzema to devastating effect. It's not just that Ronaldo doesn't press: he doesn't hold the ball up, combine, win the first ball, the second ball, drift, or have the movement of a lone striker. Kylian Mbappe is in a similar boat. The Frenchman was at his best in a front two for Monaco, then to the right or left at Paris Saint-Germain, or alongside Olivier Giroud. As a lone no.9 at at Real Madrid, he too has suffered a similar criticism, despite the deluge of goals. And yet Mbappe is in his prime. Ronaldo's prime depending on who you ask was some 10-15 years ago. In that time, his ambitions have seemingly shrunk, rather than grown: he simply wants to exist in the penalty box.Watching Portugal in their two final warm-up matches before they take to North America has been alarming. Even those who worship at the temple of Cristiano must be apprehensive: if you were being kind, you'd say he's not quite in the groove yet.Although, let's just say criticism is loaded when it comes to CR7. You may like The numbers make the argument for Cristiano Ronaldo. Hes not in the squad because of what he was, but because his present form earns it every time Roberto Martinez on the Portuguese icons World Cup selection Cristiano Ronaldo gives Portugal easy decision about starter status, new data shows Portugal World Cup squad 2026 as Cristiano Ronaldo heads into his sixth tournament What was once a debate between the two goliaths of their generation has morphed into a philosophical question. If Messi is a socialist skipper, dropping deeper with age to supply and assist as much as he takes his own glory as evidenced by a stunning reverse ball after coming on against Iceland in his last pre-World Cup fixture Ronaldo is the opposite. Ronaldo is an almost neoliberal figurehead; a proud individualist, who through sheer unrelenting discipline, has overcome systemic barriers, prioritised his own output and refused to accept limits. He is not a cog in a machine: he is a hero brand, who saves the day.But while Portugal have gone into past tournaments with similarly star-studded, Galactico-esque squads some of them mirroring Ronaldo's own club setups with jewels plucked from Europe's finest they head to North America with a far more cohesive collective. The midfield alone might just be the best around. Joao Neves and Vitinha rival anyone for their combination of legs and control, a double-pivot with gearstick control that arguably no one else can rival this summer. Ahead of them, Bruno Fernandes enjoyed the season of his life, racking up a record-equalling 20 league assists this season gone, before the Premier League gifted him a bonus one for good behaviour on the final day of the season.Nuno Mendes is so far and above the best left-back in the world right now. Diogo Costa has a reputation as a penalty-saving expert. Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo are seasoned winners; Pedro Neto, Goncalo Ramos and Rafael Leao would be the envy of plenty of nations. It's a genuinely impressive squad, without too many superstar egos. Well, aside from the obvious.And that's a problem for Martinez, whether he realises it yet or not. When you deep it, it might actually be a problem for the sport if this side overcome all the odds most of them stacked by their own captain.Ronaldo was the byword for mentality in this game for as long as he was pitted against the so-called far more natural talent of Messi. Not just his career path, but his body language, gestures and even smirks have been microanalysed by those craving fractions of such success. His ascension to the throne was a lesson to us all; watching him refuse to leave it with good grace should be, too.What does it mean for us if such individualism triumphs on the biggest stage of all? Is it a good thing for Ronaldo to finally have his time in the sun? Or is there something fundamentally odd about suggesting that the road to glory is about hanging around as long as you physically can before your fingernails are plied from the cliff face by those following suit? Is dignity as important as victory? Is legacy about what you don't do, as much as what you do, and what you continue to keep doing in front of the world when everyone wishes you shouldn't?It's not a personal slight, but it would feel like the villain winning. It would almost feel more romantic if Ronaldo stepped aside, using his insatiable hunger to push others. His last dance could be one final twist: CR7 the super sub, coming on at 75 minutes, turning Portugal's path into a series of 15-minute shootouts, where even at 41, he could find a niche. Starting every game, taking set-pieces away from Bruno Fernandes, spurning chance after chance, surely hampers Martinez more than it helps him. One day, we will show videos of Cristiano Ronaldo to our kids and grandkids. We will tell them of the war between ideologies, Ronaldo on one side, Messi on the other. And depending on what we show them, perhaps they simply won't believe us. That this guy, the quadragenarian consistently teetering towards tantrum, struck the fear of the devil in just about every defender who dared to square up to him? He actually engineered himself into debates that he could be the greatest footballer who ever graced grass? There's still time for Cristiano Ronaldo to write another chapter of his story and it might not be favourable to him or the sport.Get FourFourTwo NewsletterThe best features, fun and footballing quizzes, straight to your inbox every week.Contact me with news and offers from other Future brandsReceive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsorsBy submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.Mark WhiteSocial Links NavigationContent EditorMark White is the Digital Content Editor at FourFourTwo. During his time on the brand, Mark has written three cover features on Mikel Arteta, Martin Odegaard and the Invincibles, and has written pieces on subjects ranging from Sir Bobby Robsons time at Barcelona to the career of Robinho. An encyclopedia of football trivia and collector of shirts, he first joined the team back in 2020 as a staff writer.
