Spanish media savage Ronaldo as Portugal's World Cup exit ends his last chapter

Cristiano Ronaldo’s final World Cup ended in tears and a chorus of damning verdicts from the Spanish press after Mikel Merino’s added-time winner sent Portugal home in a drab last-16 clash between the Iberian rivals.

The 41-year-old, who will be 45 when Portugal co-hosts the 2030 tournament, walked off the pitch knowing he had played his last match at the competition. While Ronaldo commands respect in Spain for his years at Real Madrid, the country’s media were in rare agreement: he had become a hindrance to his national team rather than a help.

ABC was the most scathing, describing him as “largely unnoticed” and “a shadow of his former self” before cataloguing his shortcomings in detail. “Lacking speed, dribbling and bite. At times, he didn’t even seem to know what to do with the ball,” the outlet wrote, adding that “his lacklustre performance wasn’t enough to send him to the bench, which partly explains the meagre attacking output of a Portugal side that relied on him as its main attacking threat.”

La Razon noted that “his participation in the game was limited” and pointed to a fundamental physical decline: “Over the years, his range of action on the field has considerably reduced, and he no longer possesses the explosiveness that characterised much of his career. He was the player who covered the fewest kilometres and never came close to truly troubling Unai Simon.”

AS kept it blunt — “What about Cristiano? No sign of him” — while Marca awarded him just one star in their player ratings and offered a sardonic aside: “CR7, before becoming CR1000, has reduced his area of operation.”

The Portuguese press was, predictably, more generous. A Bola framed the result as the close of an era: “Ronaldo’s farewell to the world’s biggest competition ends up being this one, marked by sadness.”

Ronaldo himself acknowledged the finality of the occasion while stopping short of announcing his international retirement. “I’m sad to leave the World Cup like this,” he said. “But as I said in the press conference, I gave everything. I gave my best, and I leave with a clear conscience. It was my last World Cup, yes, but now I’ll have time to think and be with my family. I don’t make decisions in the heat of the moment, nor do I want to shift the focus from what was done at the World Cup because of a personal decision.”