I agree that Cristiano Ronaldo is driven to be the best, and for him individual records are something he needed to try proving it to himself. He is, however, an incredibly hard working competitor who gave all of himself to his sport. He is hardly the first or the only athlete for whom aging has been a difficult thing to accept. To be fair, he worked so hard all his life as an athlete (incredibly disciplined training, diet, etc.) that he is more like a 34 year old than a 40 year old. But he's not at the same level as he was when he and Messi were the two best soccer players in the world. That's OK. He'll come to grips with it.
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.