EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsDALLAS -- All told, 11 World Cup goals is outstanding. Of the thousands of men who have played in the FIFA World Cup since 1930, only eight have ever scored more, and most of them -- Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbapp, Ronaldo (the Brazilian one), Gerd Muller, Harry Kane, Pel -- are or will go down as all-time greats.That Cristiano Ronaldo retires from World Cup play with what is tied for the ninth-best goal scoring record of all time isn't exactly shameful stuff, especially for someone who is likely between about the fifth- and 10th-best men's player of all time. And he distributed those 11 goals well enough to eventually become the first person to score in six editions of the competition.Considering his other honors, though -- over 800 club goals, nearly 150 international goals, five Ballon d'Ors, five Champions League titles, seven league titles, plus Euro 2016 and two Nations League titles -- the World Cup ends up being a blindspot on his rsum, a missed opportunity to rank even higher on that theoretical all-time list.After providing major attacking energy for the Portugal team that finished fourth at the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo's relationship with the world's most popular tournament was rather fraught. Even as Portugal won big in other competitions, they won only one more knockout match -- last week against Croatia in the brand-new round of 32 -- and the winning goal came with Ronaldo on the bench. His last match was a meek attacking performance and a 1-0 loss to Spain on Monday.- Ronaldo's World Cup ends with a whimper- Borden: USMNT will look back at World Cup as a missed opportunity- World Cup: Fixtures, results and all coverageWhy did Portugal suffer so many disappointments? The reasons differed from tournament to tournament; in some, Ronaldo didn't get nearly enough help. In others, he battled finishing problems. But after peaking with a brilliant set of performances in 2018, he struggled in 2022 and 2026, as one would expect of someone first approaching, and then passing, 40 years of age.Let's look back at Ronaldo's six World Cups to see both what went wrong at times and what occasionally went quite right.2006 World Cup: GermanyPortugal results:- defeated Angola (1-0)- defeated Iran (2-0)- defeated Mexico (2-1)- R16: defeated Netherlands (1-0)- QF: defeated England (0-0, 3-2 in penalties)- SF: lost to France (0-1)- Third-place game: lost to Germany (1-3)A 21-year old coming off of his first season with double-digit goals at Manchester United, Ronaldo started all six games despite suffering a thigh injury after a dirty tackle against the Netherlands. He scored on a penalty against Iran and ranked first on the team in shot attempts (27), progressive carries (98), ground duel attempts (103) and fouls suffered (23). He was also second in ball recoveries (38) and third in chances created (nine).Finishing and shot quality were issues -- penalty aside, he attempted 26 shots worth just 1.55 xG (a paltry 0.06 xG per shot) and scored on none of them -- but he contributed in a lot of ways to what remains Portugal's best World Cup performance of the last 60 years. His penalty against England sent them through to the quarterfinals.2010 World Cup: South AfricaPortugal results:- tied Ivory Coast (0-0)- defeated North Korea (7-0)- tied Brazil (0-0)- R16: lost to Spain (0-1)With an aging squad and a defense-loving head coach (Carlos Queiroz), Ronaldo and Portugal both had a strange 2010 campaign: They averaged a solid 1.8 goals per match... but scored all their goals in one match.Ronaldo had a goal and an assist among five chances created in their blowout of North Korea, but Portugal was otherwise scoreless and hit double digits in shot attempts only once (against Brazil). Ronaldo attempted 16 of the team's 32 shots in those three scoreless matches, but for the tournament, he attempted only one shot worth more than 0.08 xG and one shot closer than 11 meters from the goal. He didn't perform well, but he didn't get much help either.2014 World Cup: BrazilPortugal results:- lost to Germany (0-4)- tied USA (2-2)- defeated Ghana (2-1)Now 29 and well into his prime -- he scored at least 50 goals in all competitions at Real Madrid every season from 2010-11 to 2015-16 -- and joined by 10 of the teammates who would win Euro 2016 for him when he got injured, Ronaldo suffered a genuinely disappointing performance in Brazil.Portugal got run out of the proverbial building against eventual champions Germany in their opening match, and they were outplayed for most of their second match against the U.S., too. Only a beautiful Ronaldo assist to Silvestre Varela in the fifth minute of stoppage time salvaged a draw. But the first match wrecked their goal differential, and they bowed out in the group stage despite winning their last match.Ronaldo scored the go-ahead goal against Ghana, but finished with only that goal from shots worth 2.79 xG. He led his team in seemingly every attacking statistic and was still doing heavy lifting in the 1v1s department, but this was a terribly disappointing campaign.2018 World Cup: RussiaPortugal results:- tied Spain (3-3)- def. Morocco (1-0)- tied Iran (1-1)- R16: lost to Uruguay (1-2)If Portugal had gone on to do great things in Russia, Ronaldo's game against Spain might be remembered in a completely different light. He might have painted only one masterpiece in a World Cup, but it was still a masterpiece.Against a Spain team not that far removed from its run of three straight major tournament titles, Ronaldo scored on all three of his shot attempts and both gave Portugal two different leads and salvaged a draw after two quick strikes from Spain. He followed that up with an early game-winner against Morocco, too, and created a number of solid chances against Iran.But a late Iran goal caused Portugal to finish second in their group and face an excellent Uruguay squad instead of host Russia (who went on to upset Spain). And on the same day that Messi's Argentina was eliminated, so too was Portugal, upstaged by a brilliant performance from Edinson Cavani.It was disappointing, but at 33, Ronaldo had his best World Cup yet. And with a hat trick in the semifinals against Switzerland, he would help Portugal win the inaugural UEFA Nations League title the next year as well.2022 World Cup: QatarPortugal results:- def. Ghana (3-2)- def. Uruguay (2-0)- lost to South Korea (1-2)After this late-career high, things fell apart pretty quickly. Ronaldo moved from Real Madrid to Juventus but as his assist rates sank and pressing became nonexistent, he was quickly becoming too one-dimensional to help a major club win big. He scored plenty of goals for Juve, but they slipped from their Serie A perch, and when he was sent back to Manchester United, he quickly ended up in a standoff with manager Erik ten Hag, who demanded infinitely more work off the ball.By the time the 2022 World Cup rolled around, he was coming off of a frustrating Euro 2020 performance -- he scored two non-penalty goals in four matches, and Portugal bowed out quickly -- and it felt like the end was near. In Qatar, he scored a penalty against Ghana, and that was it. Portugal's only great performance came against Switzerland, when Gonalo Ramos started in his place and scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 win, and Ronaldo left the field in tears after contributing just one shot attempt, from long range, in an upset loss to Morocco.Head coach Fernando Santos had set the table for Portugal to move on from Ronaldo, but instead they fired Santos and hired someone who would lean more heavily than ever on the aging star.2026 World Cup: USA, Canada and MexicoPortugal results:- tied Congo DR (1-1)- def. Uzbekistan (5-0)- tied Colombia (0-0)- def. Croatia (2-1)- lost to Spain (0-1)Under Roberto Martinez, Ronaldo enjoyed a brief rebirth, scoring eight goals in nine matches as Portugal won their second Nations League crown in 2024-25. He thrived in his first season with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, too.But he was also a massive liability at Euro 2024, scoring zero goals while going the distance in four of five matches; in the last three, Portugal were shut out, and he entered the 2026 World Cup scoreless in his last nine matches in the two major tournaments (World Cup and Euros). Ramos wasn't lighting the world afire at PSG, but he was still playing a role at the best club in the world, and since the 2022 World Cup he is averaging 1.16 goals per 90 minutes with the national team to Ronaldo's 0.80.There was still a role for Ronaldo to play on this team, especially with the admiration he seemed to draw from his teammates. But it was clear who Portugal's best option was up front.In the end, Martinez did Ronaldo a disservice by playing pretend.When Ronaldo was a non-factor in a costly draw against Congo DR in the opener, Martinez played him all 90 minutes and justified it by saying, "It makes no sense to get the best goal scorer in world football out in a game that you need goals."When he was again mostly a non-factor against Spain on Monday, generating just 19 total touches and almost completely disappearing down the stretch, Martinez basically repeated the same line: "When you're a team and you need a goal you can't take Cristiano Ronaldo off. He can play 90 minutes, no problem. He's a presence, he opens space, a dead-ball situation, anything in the box, it would make no sense."The problem was he absolutely wasn't a presence, and in every game he played, he was invisible after about the 75th minute.Looking only at what happened after the 75-minute mark in the World Cup, Ronaldo played 66 minutes and attempted only one shot with two progressive carries, one progressive pass and one successful ground duel. The only time Martinez substituted Ronaldo, he was rewarded when Ramos scored the game-winner late against Croatia in the round of 32. But then Ronaldo played all 90 minutes again, with Ramos on the bench, against Spain.Even if Martinez insisted on starting Ronaldo -- a disservice to Ramos, but perhaps justified for leadership purposes -- taking him off after 70 or 75 minutes would have given Portugal a better chance to beat either Congo DR or Colombia in the group stage; with one more win, they would have won their group and played Ghana and Switzerland in the first two knockout rounds instead of Croatia and Spain. The team could have advanced further into the tournament, therefore giving Ronaldo one last sustained run to be a part of in a tournament in which so many other stars, like Messi, Mbappe, Erling Haaland and Harry Kane are scoring big.Instead, Martinez pretended it was still 2014 or 2018 and played Ronaldo a detrimental number of minutes. And his World Cup career ended in disappointment.
