As he celebrates his 40th birthday on Wednesday, Ronaldo ass quoted as saying on Spanish TV on Monday that “I think I’m the most complete player to have existed. In my opinion, I think it’s me. I do everything well in football.”
“One thing is taste – if you like Messi, Pele, Maradona, I understand that and I respect that – but saying Ronaldo isn’t complete… I’m the most complete. I haven’t seen anybody better than me, and I say it from the heart.”
The Al-Nassr player will now be hoping to push his limits even further as he enters his 40s and shows no sign of retiring any time soon.
Despite growing criticism from fans, and facing his own mortality in the game for perhaps the first time, in his mind, he’s still got plenty to achieve.
Among the things that still make him tick are playing in the 2026 World Cup – and returning home with the trophy, having recently said he would like to “win something else with the national team,” netting 1, 000 career goals – he currently has 923, reaching 250 Portugal caps – he has 217, and sharing the pitch with his son Cristiano Ronaldo (Jr), who is 14 and plays for Al-Nassr’s youth teams.
When it comes to Ronaldo, his compatriots have learned that as he usually says, “there are no impossibilities.”
“Ronaldo does things, but he does them knowing all the whys, and that’s what impresses me. I’m convinced he’ll continue for another one, two, or even three years,” said his former Al-Nassr coach Luis Castro.
It would have been impossible to predict Ronaldo would accomplish everything he has, but the mentality was there from the very beginning.
Read also: SPORT: Premier League considering semi-automated offside tech before season ends
“I remember us being ready to step on to the pitch to face Manchester United [in the 2003 friendly at Alvalade], with both teams lined up side by side – United with big names like [Ryan] Giggs, Paul Scholes, and [Ruud] Van Nistelrooy,” Joao Aroso, who was Sporting fitness coach back then, told BBC Sport.
“And you’d expect Cristiano, an 18-year-old at the time, to look at them, at such famous players. But I remember looking at Cristiano and seeing him completely focused on the game, not distracted at all – he didn’t even glance at them. That says a lot about his personality.”
Ronaldo would go from there to United, then to Real Madrid and finally to Juventus, winning five Ballons d’Or and becoming arguably Portugal’s greatest-ever player along the way.
Former Manchester United performance coach Mick Clegg, told BBC Radio 5 Live’s Football Daily: “I have looked at loads of great people since working with Ronaldo and I think Cristiano Ronaldo is in the league of Leonardo da Vinci, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Nikola Tesler and Stephen Hawking. And what are they? They are all geniuses and he is a genius.”
