Ronaldo at 41 at the World Cup: blessing or burden for Portugal?
With 143 goals and 41 years of age, Ronaldo is playing his sixth World Cup. Portugal have rarely looked better built — but the biggest question mark is the star himself.
No player in football history has arrived at a sixth World Cup with more international goals than Cristiano Ronaldo. He has scored 143 times in a Portugal shirt — and now, at 41, he steps onto the pitch against the Democratic Republic of Congo carrying the weight of an entire career and the hopes of a nation.
The question that divides fans and analysts alike is an old one, but it has never felt more urgent: does Portugal play better with or without him?
The Portuguese side arrive at this World Cup with one of the tournament's best midfields, an experienced defence and high-quality attackers on the flanks. The squad, according to BBC Sport, has rarely been so well assembled to go deep in a tournament. The issue — or the glory, depending on your point of view — is that Ronaldo occupies the centre of that attack.
João Aroso, who worked with the star at both Sporting and with the national team, sums up what he represents beyond the pitch: "Cristiano allows our small country to be known worldwide for something great," he told BBC Sport.
It all started on 20 August 2003, in a 1–0 win over Kazakhstan, in front of just 8,000 supporters, on a pitch so poor it had to be painted to look presentable. Nobody could have imagined that the boy from Madeira would be, more than two decades later, joining Messi and Guillermo Ochoa as the only trio to have played in six World Cups.
Golmetria's model gives Portugal a 4.88% chance of lifting the trophy — a figure that rises to nearly 87% probability of advancing from the group stage. There is a genuine path forward.
But that path requires Ronaldo to be the solution, not the problem. He may well decide where this World Cup ends for Portugal — the only question is which direction that influence will pull.