Cristiano Ronaldo celebrated his 40th birthday in early February and many of us will be asking ourselves: “How long is this guy going to defy time?”

It was early September and the press room was packed with reporters. It was the first time they had seen Portugal regroup since Euro 2024, and more importantly, they were curious to know what Cristiano Ronaldo would say after a tournament in which he had barely spoken (and in fact, on the pitch, nothing too remarkable).

Ronaldo leaves Germany as one of the few captains (perhaps the only one) who has not faced the media once. No one knows what is going to happen. What will come next? And will his international career be over after the defeat in Germany?

When Ronaldo entered the press conference room, the crowded atmosphere of the press conference room suddenly became silent. Ronaldo did not sit down immediately, but checked his phone for a few seconds, then took off the jacket tied around his waist and finally moved the water bottle aside. Finally, when everything was comfortable and pleasing to the eye, he began to answer questions from reporters. As soon as a local journalist shared that “no one can forget what he has done in the past 20 years”, Ronaldo immediately interrupted and corrected the reporter: “… and what I am still doing” . A sentence that was enough to confirm that he was not a guy who had passed his time.

Although a CNN Portugal/Mais Futebol survey found that 74% of Portuguese fans want him out of the national team, with the above statement, everyone understands that Ronaldo will not leave anywhere.

The Time Defiant

Last summer, Ronaldo was increasingly disappointing on the international stage, failing to score a single goal at the Euros. He needed just one goal in Germany to become the first player to score in six consecutive Euros. But it was all to no avail. He burst into tears when Jan Oblak saved a penalty in extra time against Slovenia in the round of 16, but struggled to hold back his tears as Portugal lost to France on penalties in the quarter-finals.

The image of Ronaldo in the summer of 2024 reminds people a bit of the image of Steven Gerrard after his fateful slip that cost Liverpool the Premier League trophy in 2014. Steven Gerrard played with extreme tension after that slip, he kept trying to do many things to correct his mistakes. But in the end, everything went nowhere. Ronaldo at Euro 2024 is the same, he kept trying to take free kicks, shots at unimaginable angles and at distances that people could not even dream of shooting at just to prove one thing:… he is still valuable.

But despite all this, Ronaldo chose to stay with the national team to once again defy both time and biological logic. Last February, Ronaldo turned 40, but he is determined to redefine his greatness and prove that age is just a number.

Cristiano Ronaldo ended 2024 with 43 goals – less than Viktor Gyokeres (62 goals), Erling Haaland (49 goals) and Harry Kane (46 goals). Although Ronaldo built that impressive number in a place considered a “retirement home” for stars, he still constantly appeared in the newspapers with his own never-ending enthusiasm. Of Ronaldo’s 43 goals, 5 came in 5 matches for Portugal after the September press conference. From a nightmare summer in Germany, Ronaldo became the top scorer in League A of the Nations League. He scored against Croatia, Scotland and tore Poland’s net 3 times (of which only 1 goal came from the penalty spot).

Before that, Ronaldo also showed quite explosive form in the Euro 2024 qualifiers. During the qualifying period towards Germany, only Romelu Lukaku was the player who scored more goals than him. However, when looking back at Ronaldo’s 10 goals in that period, most of them were against much weaker teams such as Slovakia, Iceland, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. In major tournaments, Ronaldo has gone through a streak of 9 consecutive matches without a goal. The last time he scored at a national level was from the 2022 World Cup – when he scored from the penalty spot against Ghana in Portugal’s opening match. The last goal Ronaldo had at a major tournament from a live ball situation was more than 5 years ago – when Ronaldo scored against Germany at Euro 2020.

Ronaldo’s form at major tournaments is also the reason why coach Roberto Martinez has had to face a lot of criticism. He still firmly believed in Ronaldo in all 5 matches at Euro 2024 and only replaced him once (the only substitution was in the 0-2 loss to Georgia when Portugal had already secured their place in the next round). That was an unbelievable playing time for a 39-year-old player, and more worryingly, 2/5 matches lasted until the end of extra time. Ronaldo left the tournament as the most used player of the Portuguese team (a total of 486 minutes of play, accounting for 95% of the playing time).

Despite mounting pressure from fans and the media who believe Portugal are better off without him, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner remains untouchable under Martinez and is a key figure in the future plans of the European Selecao. Ronaldo insists he is focused on the present, but it is understood that if Portugal qualify for next year’s World Cup, he will CERTAINLY be there to chase his dream once again. At 41, Ronaldo will then become the fourth oldest player in the tournament’s history, behind only Roger Milla (42 – played in the 1994 World Cup), Faryd Mondragon (43 – played in the 2014 World Cup) and Essam El Hadary (45 – played in the 2018 World Cup).

For some, the prospect of Ronaldo playing in the 2030 World Cup (which Portugal will co-host) is not entirely… far-fetched. At that time, Ronaldo will be 45 years old and only a few days shy of El Hadary’s record as the oldest player to play in a World Cup.

“I absolutely believe that (Ronaldo will be at the World Cup),” said Nani, his former Manchester United and Portugal teammate. “He will be on a diet again and will be at the tournament. He is in great shape and physically fit. Hopefully he will score goals and play well at the World Cup.”

No one knows how long Ronaldo plans to play, but no one dares to rule out the possibility that CR7 will play in a few more World Cups. Ronaldo is not only the greatest player in Portuguese history, the man who lifted the Euro 2016 trophy, but also a giant shadow that has loomed over every moment of the team since his debut against Kazakhstan in 2003. For more than two decades, Ronaldo’s name has never been absent from any story about Europe’s Seleção.

With a world record 217 caps for the national team, Ronaldo has appeared in more than 30% of Portugal’s matches since 1921. More importantly, he has completely changed the perception of the team – a collective that was once known for its poor mentality in Europe.

With Ronaldo, entering the game is to win!

Fitness coach Joao Aroso first met Ronaldo when he was a fitness coach at Sporting Lisbon. Looking back, he could never have imagined that the young striker would still be playing today.

“It was incredible,” Aroso tells FourFourTwo. “We all know that Cristiano takes great care of his body, he always has. From the time I was 18, when I worked with him at Sporting, he took great care of his body. It’s true that fitness is important in football, but the way he takes care of himself has changed a lot over time. Back then, all players did to maintain their fitness was just training, training, and wanting to train as much as possible.”

Aroso is currently working as a coach for the Korean national team. Previously, from 2010 to 2015, he was an assistant for the Portuguese national team, where he had the opportunity to work with Ronaldo once again.

“At that time, Ronaldo was still training very hard, but he also started to pay more attention to recovery,” Aroso said. “Cristiano paid special attention to recovery, nutrition and everything that could help him become the most complete athlete. But the most important thing – the thing that allowed him to play at the top level until he was 40 – was his mentality.

“It is the intense desire and passion for football that keeps Ronaldo going. Good physical condition is of course important, but much of Cristiano’s success comes from his will and steely spirit. He always finds joy in training, in competing and in conquering new records. That is the driving force that keeps this machine running.”

Aroso now recalled a story from the Portuguese national team’s training camp to illustrate this.

“Back then, there was a table tennis match between Ronaldo – Fabio Coentrao and Nani – Miguel Veloso. The match was good, full of tension and very evenly matched. The funny thing is that Fabio Coentrao is someone who rarely knows fear or feels pressure from anything. He lives very carefree, even in big matches.

“But in the table tennis match that day, because he had to pair up with Cristiano and the match was very even, Coentrao was constantly pressured by Ronaldo to play at his best. It was so tense that Coentrao had to ask for a pause and told Ronaldo: ‘I’m under a lot of pressure.’

“On the football field, Coentrao never felt so stressed, but just because he plays table tennis with Ronaldo, he also fell into a state of stress. Simply because for Cristiano Ronaldo, everything must be won. Regardless of whether it is a fun table tennis match or an important football match, Ronaldo wants to win every time he enters the match. That is the nature of CR7.”

Like fitness coach Aroso, Carlos Freitas also met Ronaldo for the first time since his career was just beginning. The former Sporting Lisbon sporting director still cannot believe that CR7 has not retired yet.

“Ronaldo was introduced to me by the academy coordinator as the best 15-year-old striker in the world,” Freitas recalls. “Arsenal were one of the first teams to approach Cristiano. David Dein even flew to Lisbon to watch him play at the old Alvalade. Arsène Wenger had already received glowing reviews about Ronaldo from Sporting manager Laszlo Boloni, who had worked with him at Nancy.

“However, there were no formal negotiations with Arsenal. At that time, Parma had targeted Ronaldo as a perfect replacement for Adrian Mutu – the player who had just transferred to Chelsea. However, the most serious interest and attitude still came from Manchester United. Initially, Manchester United intended to let Cristiano stay at Sporting for another year to gain more playing experience…”

However, the original plan was completely changed after the friendly match between Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United at the inauguration of the new Alvalade stadium.

“After that friendly match, everything changed dramatically. Within 24 hours of the match, the transfer between the two sides was completed and Cristiano immediately flew to England to join Manchester United.”

More than two decades have passed since that fateful day and Ronaldo has now turned 40 and established himself as one of Portugal’s greatest ever footballers.

“Think about it, it was 2003 and now it’s 2025. It’s an incredible journey,” Freitas laughs. “No one could have imagined that Cristiano would come this far, or that he would become a global superstar. I certainly never thought that at 40 years old, Ronaldo would still be the most important player in world football. To put it bluntly, Ronaldo’s story in football is incredible. Even the most far-sighted minds could not have predicted that Ronaldo would come this far and still be so dedicated to his passion.”

Freitas’ words are true because Ronaldo himself once doubted whether he would still be able to stay at the top when he turned 40, saying half-jokingly, half-seriously: “When I’m around 40, I’ll probably just be crawling on the football field.” Some people joked that Ronaldo’s current situation at Al Nassr is not much different from his prediction, but putting aside those jokes, we have to look at the truth: Ronaldo at the age of 40 still maintains his position as a top football star in the world, and that is the result of decades of hard work and serious dedication to his career.

“Cristiano is a very inquisitive person. He often asks me if there are any new scientific studies on nutrition or recovery,” said Jose Carlos Noronha, Director of the Portuguese Football Federation’s Health and Performance Center. “Cristiano’s body is like a rare supercar – the kind that can travel millions of kilometers without breaking down. From his diet, to his sleep, to the smallest recovery exercises, he takes care of everything to make sure his ‘machine’ runs smoothly and at peak performance.”

In addition to his dream of participating in and conquering the 2026 World Cup, Ronaldo is also gradually laying bricks in his great personal record. In addition to the dream title mentioned above, the desire to reach the milestone of 1,000 goals in his career (up to now, he has 925 goals throughout his professional career), marking 250 matches for the Portuguese national team and especially realizing the dream of playing with his son – Cristiano Junior are all milestones that Ronaldo wants to aim for.

Ronaldo’s contract with Al Nassr is set to expire this summer, but rumours of an extension are starting to circulate. 25 goals in 31 appearances this season and a top scorer position in the SPL are still impressive enough for a club like Al Nassr to decide to keep him for a few more seasons.

“He is still an important part of the Portugal team, still a starter under Roberto Martinez, and still scoring regularly for both club and country despite being 39-40 years old,” Freitas affirmed. “I don’t think 40 is the end of Ronaldo’s career. For him, the desire to conquer new heights is always burning.”

So the question is: How long will Ronaldo play?

“At this stage, it is difficult to make long-term predictions about his career,” fitness coach Aroso said. “Everything depends entirely on Ronaldo’s physical and mental condition.”

“The dream of playing in the next World Cup is certainly a huge motivation for Cristiano. Whether he can still make a difference is another story. But even if he is no longer a regular starter, Ronaldo can still be a trump card thanks to his experience and killer instinct – something he has shown to this day. At 40, recovery times will be longer, so maintaining high intensity for 90 minutes will no longer be an easy story for Ronaldo. But if he accepts his physical condition and understands that he can play the role of a hero from the bench, it will definitely be a very powerful new weapon from the name Ronaldo.”

Ronaldo’s place in the world football pantheon has been forever etched after all he has achieved since his debut for the first team in 2002. He will continue to progress step by step in the hope that one day he will reach the milestones he desires. And of course, for a beast with a burning desire, 40 is simply a number.

According to Marcus Alves (FourFourTwo)