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“The Cristiano-Messi pair will remain the greatest in history.”
Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup dream came to an end after Spain were knocked out of the World Cup yesterday, Monday, following a very poor performance by Portugal.
This raises the important question that has been on the lips of soccer fans for a long time, which is whether Ronaldo’s failure to win the World Cup is a setback for the Portuguese star and keeps him away from competing with other legends for the position of the greatest in history.
The truth is that it’s unfair to hold any player responsible for something that wasn’t his choice, and by that I mean we shouldn’t hold Ronaldo responsible for being Portuguese, for example.
Looking at Cristiano’s long career, which started in Portugal, then moved to England, then Spain, Italy and Saudi Arabia, we find that success was his main title.
At team level, handpicked by Cristiano, the Portuguese star has achieved historic numbers, winning every possible title, especially the Champions League, the world’s strongest club competition.
Not only has Ronaldo won Champions League titles, but he is also considered the most famous star in its history, being its all-time top scorer and winning the title with Manchester United and Real Madrid.
He also became the all-time top goalscorer for a club the size of Real Madrid during his 9 seasons with the Royals. He also won titles in Italy before moving to Saudi Arabia to take on a new challenge and start a historic phase for Saudi football, with the stars moving to the Kingdom after him. He also did not miss the titles despite being 41 years old.
Here I confirm that Ronaldo succeeded in what he chose and maintained a great career for many years that exceeded 20 years, something that no one has done in history except the Argentinian legend Lionel Messi.
Only Ronaldo and Messi have enjoyed continuity at the top level for many years, writing history that is difficult to easily repeat.
Although the history of football is full of many legends, but apart from Ronaldo and Messi, there is no one who has maintained his presence at the top for so many years.
What if Ronaldo wore a different shirt?
Ronaldo, on the other hand, was not really lucky enough to represent the Portuguese national team, unlike many football legends who represented teams that were not top-flight and thus missed out on international podiums.
If Ronaldo were France, Argentina, Germany, Italy or Spain, he would win the World Cup, of course, something many players from those teams have achieved whose careers don’t come close to a quarter of Cristiano’s.
It should be noted that the big teams win in the World Cup thanks to the integrated system and the historical culture of winning that countries like France or Argentina have, for example, when Ronaldo carried the country on his shoulders to enter the competitive map.
This is a problem that has affected and will affect many big players whose national teams are not in the first tier. For example, in our continent of Africa, there was Liberian George Weah, who initially did not participate in the World Cup and scored only one goal in 5 matches played in the Africa Cup of Nations. Does this negate his history and the fact that he is the only African to have won the Ballon d’Or for the best player in the world and that if he was, for example, Brazilian, he would have won the World Cup?
There are many stars who have done a lot for their teams and won titles, but have not achieved anything at the international level for the same reason.
Portugal before and after Ronaldo
Despite this, Ronaldo changed the history of Portugal thanks to his many goals, high spirit and leadership personality, which raised the ceiling of the team’s ambitions.
It should be clarified that before the arrival of Cristiano, Portugal did not have a significant history in football, except for the third place in the 1966 World Cup, where it only qualified for the World Cup 3 times and the European Cup of Nations only 3 times.
Before Ronaldo joined the first team in 2003, Portugal did not win a single title, but with his arrival, a new phase began, which witnessed an unprecedented history for this team.
Indeed, it can be said that Portugal’s football history is divided into one phase, before Ronaldo, and another phase, with his presence.
The team, never title contenders and rarely qualifying for the World Cup or European Nations, rose to the podium by winning the Euro 2016 title at the expense of France, as well as winning the UEFA Nations League twice, in 2019 against the Netherlands and in 2025 against Spain.
Portugal have also not missed a single World Cup or European match since Ronaldo’s arrival, going six straight in both competitions.
Ronaldo had an irrevocable role in these achievements and it is enough to say that he scored 146 goals for Portugal in various competitions and qualifiers, which greatly contributed to the unprecedented results in their history.
That’s why I repeat that if Ronaldo wasn’t Portuguese and represented a first-class team, scored all those goals and performed at the high levels that some of his critics now know nothing about, he would still be on the list of World Cup winners.
“We have to enjoy what’s left of Cristiano’s career.”
Now… with Ronaldo out of the World Cup and his career coming to an end with only one dream left, that of reaching 1,000 goals, Cristiano’s fans should enjoy what he left on the pitch without holding him accountable for something that was not his choice.
Ronaldo, the all-time top scorer in football, will remain a historical legend who will not be ashamed of not winning the World Cup, and the criticism of some haters who failed or did not see him on the field will not affect his image in the eyes of football fans, especially the fair ones.
I conclude that what Cristiano has given throughout his career deserves his rivals to raise his hat to him in front of the fans, as in the case of Messi, because this pairing has not been repeated in history and will not be repeated.
