Ronaldo admits 2026 World Cup was one too many at 41

Cristiano Ronaldo played his sixth and final World Cup at the 2026 tournament, but the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, 41, could not hide a decline that close observers no longer hesitate to name.

It was Ronaldo — the Brazilian, two-time World Cup champion in 1994 and 2002 — who offered the most direct diagnosis. “Perhaps he still has the level to play in Saudi Arabia, but to compete in a World Cup, you realize it’s much more difficult, the level is much higher,” he told ESPN. “R9” knows what he’s talking about: he himself experienced the boundary between passion and the body’s limits. “Despite our love of football and our desire to play forever, it’s ultimately the body that decides for us,” he added.

On the pitch, Ronaldo’s record remained modest. A brace against Uzbekistan and a penalty converted against Croatia in the round of 16 were not enough to revive a Portuguese side ultimately eliminated by Spain. Statistics that, far from contradicting the decline assessment, illustrate it.

After this elimination, the Al-Nassr player had himself opened the door to international retirement without fully closing it. “It was my last World Cup, but for the rest, I’ll have time to think about it, not to make decisions in the heat of the moment,” he had said. His participation in the 2030 World Cup is, however, ruled out: Ronaldo would then be 45 years old.

This 2026 World Cup will thus remain the final point of a World Cup adventure that began in 2006 in Germany, rich in striking individual moments, but never crowning Portugal — nor its captain — with the ultimate prize.