Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 07/06/2026 6:40:36 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
At 41 years old, Cristiano Ronaldo is a shadow of the once brilliant player he was. Everyone can see it, except the great man himself. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is now focused on chasing the stupendous milestone of 1,000 career goals, which would be yet another achievement for a footballer obsessed with breaking personal records in a team sport.
The 2026 World Cup marks yet another milestone achievement – the sixth time he has played in the tournament. It is a lot of soccer, and at the highest level, yet Father Time waits for no one, not even someone as rich and famous as Ronaldo.
This once supreme athlete is now a drag on the Portugal team. Horrible to think it but true enough. Yes, the statistics will record that Ronaldo scored in Portugal’s latest match: a 2-1 win against Croatia. But Ronaldo’s goal came from the penalty spot. Other than that, he huffed and puffed his way through the match, contributing very little of note. When he was substituted after 81 minutes, it was obvious enough that the great man felt this was a mistake. Ultimately, it is all about him.
It was largely the same story in the team’s opening 1-1 draw against DR Congo at the World Cup. Ronaldo labored his way through that game, and social media after the match was brimming with disparaging comments. One observer cruelly dismissed Portugal as “ten men and a statue”.
Ronaldo was indeed a passenger for much of the game, registering just 25 touches. Yet most of the crosses in the match saw his teammates targeting Ronaldo, as if he was the only player on the pitch.
The problem is that it is not much good being a one-man team when the man in question keeps misfiring. The other members of the team appear to have been reduced to a supporting act for the great CR7 who plays as if he is the only one on the field who can score.
Thierry Henry, the great France striker, got it right in his match analysis when he accused Ronaldo of being selfish.“The team needs to score, not you,” said Henry. That is an idea that is clearly lost on Ronaldo.
Portugal winger Francisco Conceição dismissed the notion that the team was obsessed with servicing Cristiano above all else: “We don’t have any obligation or need to pass the ball to him, “ Conceição said. “ Ronaldo is apparently “just another member of the squad”. Believe that if you will.
The wider statistics point to an enduring problem when Ronaldo plays for the national team. His record in the last three major international tournaments tells its own story. He has just one goal, and even that was a penalty scored in Portugal’s 2022 World Cup opening match against Ghana. In the three group stage games in Qatar where Ronaldo started, two of Portugal’s six goals came from penalties. Not only does he not score himself but he also appears to stop his teammates from playing well.
The Portuguese may well have some of the most skilled and experienced players in international soccer but they appear to shrink under the huge shadow cast by their superstar compatriot.
Portugal’s manager Roberto Martinez must take a fair share of the blame. Why does he persist in picking Ronaldo? Is he seeing something that mere mortals cannot see? Unlikely, I would suggest. There is more than a suspicion that Martinez is dodging the hard calls, perhaps the hardest call of all, and that he is simply too scared to drop him because of the headlines that would ensue. Martinez needs to grow a pair, and soon.
Tonight’s round of 16 clash with Spain, for a place in the quarter-finals, presents the biggest test yet. Persisting with Ronaldo could spell disaster for the Portuguese.
This supreme athlete and professional refuses to accept the dying of the light. His obsession with being the best of the best has yielded him soccer’s greatest prizes, and the stupendous wealth and fame that goes with it. He must surely know that he is no longer the player he once was. There is no shame in that. No one can take Ronaldo’s records away from him, and few will surpass all that he has achieved in his career. But he is in danger of overstaying his welcome at the elite level.
Rather like a boxer who cannot resist having one last fight, the end when it comes will be brutal and unforgiving. It is a tragic outcome for a soccer great who has given so much to the game.
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
> focused on chasing the stupendous milestone of 1,000 career goals <
That’s the problem right there. Ronaldo aimed too high. I myself shot for career goal of one in soccer. I achieved that in a pick-up game when I was 16.
I am now happily retired from the sport.
⚽️
I was only half listening to the news earlier and Oldest Son corrected me. Yeah, nothing like stepping on a rake in front of your kid.
Tragedy?! He has had a brilliant career and there is no denying his talent. He didn’t win a World Cup but many players don’t - it’s extraordinarily difficult. But one Euro Championship. Overshadowed by Messi to a certain extent certainly. But who wouldn’t be?!
Indeed it is. He is one of the greatest of all-time.... many such gifted players have a hard time walking away.
RE: imports
That is too simplistic an observation.
The big U.S. World Cup TV audiences were not because “foreign fans” were filling American stadiums. The TV numbers come overwhelmingly from American households, not stadium attendance.
Consider — A stadium holds 40,000–80,000 people.
A major U.S. World Cup broadcast pulls 10–25 million American viewers.
Even if every single person in the stadium were a foreign visitor (they weren’t), that has zero impact on the TV audience. TV ratings measure U.S. households watching on Fox, Telemundo, Peacock, etc. — not who sits in the stadium.
So, The real story: Americans did watch — in record numbers
The 2026 World Cup produced:
The most-watched soccer broadcasts in U.S. history
Higher U.S. viewership than the NBA Finals for several match windows
Massive streaming numbers on Peacock and Fox Sports apps
RE: Foreigners?
Too simplistic an observation in my view. See my response in post 26 of this thread.
There are more fans of “El Tri” living in the US, than fans of the USMNT.
Now the US is out, too.
I won’t disagree with you there. But my response is to the one who said “nobody watches soccer” here.
This does not mean Americans don’t like soccer
It means:
The U.S. is a multi‑ethnic country
Soccer fandom is shaped by heritage
Mexican‑American communities are extremely passionate and organized around El Tri
The USMNT fan base is growing, but historically smaller.
So here’s an observation we can make to test this — ALL THE HOST COUNTRIES OF THIS WORLD CUP SOCCER HAVE BEEN ELIMINATED ( including our own team ).
Let’s see if the audience drops precipitously not only in the stadiums but on TV and the Internet…
But the US isn’t the only country like that.
When Scotland used to play at Wembley, it was almost 80% Scotland fans in the stands there.
Obviously, not a Portugal national team fan...
Precisely, but we don’t say nobody watches soccer over there.
In the same way, we can’t say nobody watches soccer over here.
Time will tell whether I am right or wrong. If I’m wrong, I would expect a significant DROP in TV Viewership in the USA starting tomorrow.
Most great athletes retire too late rather than when they are on top. It’s just human nature to want to stick around as long as you can, and the greats have the kind of personality that they always believe they still have it, so they sort of have to get shown they obviously don’t any more to finally shatter that belief. Babe Ruth hit .181 in his final season.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.