Cristiano Ronaldo will play for Portugal in a record sixth World Cup at the age of 41. In the first of a series on players at their final World Cup, RFI looks at the striker who holds the international records for goals and appearances.
Cristiano Ronaldo dos Santos Aveiro, born in Funchal on the island of Madeira, has spent his career accumulating goals and trophies across Portugal, England, Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia.
He has won major honours with his clubs and with the Portugal national side in European competition, though the World Cup has remained beyond his reach.
In the 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Mexico and Canada, Portugal will play in Group K against the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uzbekistan and Colombia. Ronaldo confirmed last November that it will be his final World Cup.
At the 2022 tournament in Qatar, he became the first player to score at five different World Cups, scoring in a 3-2 win over Ghana at the 974 Stadium in Doha.
World Cup debut
His first World Cup goal came in 2006 in Germany. The 21-year-old, then at Manchester United, scored in a 2-0 Group D win over Iran. Portugal reached the semi-finals before losing to France, then fell 3-1 to Germany in the third-place play-off.
Four years later, at the first World Cup held in Africa, Ronaldo, by then at Real Madrid, scored in a 7-0 win over North Korea in the group stage in Cape Town. Portugal were eliminated in the last 16 by eventual champions Spain.
In Brazil in 2014, he scored in a 2-1 win over Ghana in Brasilia, maintaining his record of scoring at each tournament. Portugal did not progress beyond the group stage.
Four goals, including a hat-trick in a 3-3 draw against Spain, followed at the 2018 tournament in Russia. Portugal went out to Uruguay in the last 16.
Show of defiance
The 2022 World Cup brought both a continued scoring record and a public disagreement with the coaching staff. Ronaldo's reaction to being substituted in the group stage match against South Korea led to a falling-out with head coach Fernando Santos, and he was dropped to the bench for the last-16 tie against Switzerland at the Lusail Stadium.
Gonçalo Ramos, then at Benfica, started in his place and scored a hat-trick in a 6-1 victory. Ramos retained his place for the quarter-final against Morocco. Portugal lost, with Ronaldo entering as a substitute after half-time.
"A lot of people thought when he got dropped for the game against Switzerland that it was possibly the end of Ronaldo's Portugal career," said Tom Kundert, editor-in-chief of Portugoal.net. "And of course, Ramos came in and scored all those goals so it was almost like a changing of the guard moment."
Santos left after Portugal's elimination. His replacement, Roberto Martinez, has continued to select Ronaldo as his primary forward.
Defence of Ronaldo
"Martinez is constantly asked about these things," said Kundert. "And Martinez just comes back with the statistics."
Those figures show 25 goals in Ronaldo's last 30 games for Portugal, including two in last year's Nations League, in the semi-final against Germany and the final against Spain.
His record at the knockout stages of the World Cup, however, has been less convincing.
"He hasn't really delivered," said Kundert. "I think you can just put it that plainly. Now of course that's not all down to Ronaldo. Portugal themselves have had a pretty poor record in World Cups since 2006, especially considering their fantastic record in European championships and the talent that they have had in their teams."
Strong supporting cast
Ronaldo will enter this tournament with 143 international goals and 226 appearances to his name. Around him, a squad that includes Bruno Fernandes, Bernardo Silva and the Paris Saint-Germain quartet of Vitinha, Nuno Mendes, João Neves and Ramos offers Portugal genuine collective strength.
"The Portuguese are quite pessimistic when it comes to the national team," said Kundert, who has covered Portuguese football for more than two decades. "But there's a lot of optimism, more optimism than for past tournaments."
"Before it was Ronaldo and 10 others because he was so far ahead of everyone. Right now it's 10 of us and Ronaldo, because there are so many players who are really at the top of their game and are, just from a football point of view, more important to Portugal than Ronaldo himself."
