Cristiano Ronaldo's Last World Cup: A Final Dance with Spain

Cristiano Ronaldo stood in front of the cameras and did what he has always done best: he took the ball, not the step back.

"I am not the player I used to be."

No attempt to sugar-coat it. No pretence. Just the blunt admission of a 41-year-old who knows exactly where he stands in the game, and still refuses to be moved by anyone but himself.

On Monday in Texas, Portugal face Spain in the World Cup last 16. Kick-off at 20:00 BST. It could be Ronaldo’s final act on this stage. He has confirmed this is his last World Cup. His sister has already called it his “last dance”. The numbers say the clock is ticking; the noise around him says the debate is raging.

Ronaldo, of course, walked straight into that, too.

"You have been trying to kill me for the past 23 years," he told reporters on Sunday. "But you must have seen that is not worth it, it's a waste of time, but you try and try and try and try and try.

"As I said before, [I will stop] when I choose, not when you choose. You always ask the same question.

"This will be my last World Cup, but let's hope tomorrow isn't my last game."

Seven months shy of 42, the captain, the symbol, the lodestar of the 2016 European champions is approaching the final pages of his international story. Yet he stands on the brink of another knockout tie with three goals in this tournament, and a country still split on whether he should start the next one.

A penalty, a substitution, a storm

The moment it almost ended came in Toronto.

Against Croatia in the last 32, when Ivan Perisic struck in the 53rd minute, it felt like Ronaldo’s 232nd cap might be his last. Portugal were behind, the air heavy with that strange mix of dread and inevitability that often surrounds fading greats.

Then came the penalty. His first ever goal in the World Cup knockout rounds. A familiar run-up, the pause, the thud of boot on ball, and the net bulging again. Ronaldo dragged Portugal level, just as he has done for two decades.

And then he was gone.

Roberto Martinez made the decision that so many of his predecessors had swerved. He took off the national icon. Ronaldo’s face, as he walked to the touchline, told its own story: tight, unhappy, unconvinced. The crowd roared him away, not out.

The gamble paid off. Goncalo Ramos, widely viewed as the natural heir, came on and settled the tie in a chaotic finale. Portugal were through. The debate went into overdrive.

Now, in Texas, Martinez has a choice that will define not just a game, but a legacy. Does he go again with Ronaldo from the start against Spain, or does he reward Ramos with a place in the XI?

Ronaldo’s view of his own story is clear.

"I am not going to be more Cristiano Ronaldo or less because I win the World Cup," he said. "I even say thanks for the attacks I feel after I turned 40... the criticism is how you grow, so thank you for doing this.

"Whatever happens tomorrow, Cristiano Ronaldo will leave with a clear conscience -- not 100% but 1,000% because in life and football I gave everything."

The numbers of a fading giant

The numbers say this is no ordinary veteran hanging on.

Ronaldo remains the all-time leading scorer in international football with 146 goals. He has scored at six World Cups, a journey that started with a penalty against Iran in 2006 and has stretched across continents and eras.

• North Korea in Cape Town.
• Ghana in Brasilia.
• The hat-trick against Spain in Sochi in 2018, one of the great World Cup performances of the modern age, followed by the winner against Morocco in Moscow five days later.
• The penalty against Ghana in Qatar in 2022.
• Two more against Uzbekistan in Houston on 23 June.
• Then the spot-kick versus Croatia last week.

He has reinvented Portuguese football’s mentality, dragging a talented but often fragile football nation into a new world. For years he arrived at World Cups with an untouchable status. That sheen has dulled. The arguments have not.

Antonio Simoes, a member of the Portugal side that finished third in 1966, did not hold back.

"He doesn't play to win, he plays to be the main figure," he said. "Do you understand that it's the opposite of Eusebio? Let's call things by their name. I have nothing against him. I can still see, I can still hear and I can still think. But I can't run away from the reality of the facts."

Those facts, at this tournament, are stark.

Ronaldo has three goals, more than any of his team-mates. He has taken 15 shots, almost double anyone else in the squad, yet has not created a single chance. No player at this World Cup has had more shots without fashioning an opportunity for a colleague.

In three of Portugal’s four matches, he has had fewer than 25 touches, including one game from the bench. These are his lowest touch counts in any World Cup match of his career. He is averaging fewer touches per game than at any previous tournament.

Against Croatia, his only touch inside the opposition box was the winning penalty.

His movement tells a similar story. He is averaging just 4.4 runs in behind per match, a sharp drop from the last two World Cups, where he played a similar lone-striker role but still stretched defences with relentless sprints.

The data points to a forward who now operates almost exclusively in moments, not in the flow.

Martinez’s dilemma

Martinez, though, remains loyal.

"His leadership and that work in the final third is still one of the best in the world," the Portugal head coach said when pressed on why Ronaldo continues to start.

Since taking over in 2023, after leaving Belgium, Martinez has picked Ronaldo in 36 of Portugal’s 44 games. When he has missed out, it has mostly been because of injury or suspension.

Curiously, Portugal’s two biggest wins of the cycle have come without him. A 9-0 demolition of Luxembourg in Faro in September 2023. A 9-1 thrashing of Armenia in Porto last November. Each time, the same question surfaced: are Portugal more fluid, more dangerous, without their captain?

The answer in the stands is rarely nuanced.

For many, the man who “made us dream” has earned the right to call his own time.

"I feel he should dictate whether he wants to stay on or not," said supporter Angelo before the Croatia match. "What he has done for Portugal as a nation, he should dictate that 100%."

The tension between sentiment and cold tactical logic will hang over Martinez’s team sheet in Texas. Drop Ronaldo, and you risk a nation’s fury. Start him, and you risk Spain exploiting a forward line built around a 41-year-old who no longer presses, no longer runs in behind like he once did.

The cult that will not fade

If there were doubts that Ronaldo-mania might finally be ebbing away, this World Cup has wiped them out.

In Toronto, it was harder to find a Portugal shirt without his name than with it. Streets turned into shrines. Before the Croatia game, fans spilled onto the roads, briefly bringing one of the city’s main highways to a standstill just to catch a glimpse of him.

My taxi driver from the airport to the hotel wasn’t a football fan. He still knew Ronaldo was in town.

"The local TV and radio have been going nuts about him for days," he said. "He must be special."

One local supporter said she had spent an entire month’s wages on a match ticket, just to see him at a World Cup with her own eyes. Not Portugal. Not Croatia. Ronaldo.

Among the Portugal fans, the emotion runs even deeper.

"On the world stage we didn't really have anyone after Eusebio," said Joao. "Ronaldo came in and made us dream."

Lucilia put it more bluntly.

"People talk about Portugal because of him. He doesn't forget where he's from, he remembers the people. I love him. Ronaldo means more to Portugal than any politician."

Diana, another supporter, is already braced for the announcement that will eventually come.

"Of course I'm going to be sad," she said. "The whole world will be sad because it doesn't matter who you support. Ronaldo has had a wonderful career and been an exemplary player.

"I would say to him: 'Well done, Cristiano. Enjoy your retirement. You deserve it after entertaining the world.'

One more night, or the last?

Twenty-three years after his debut, Ronaldo still walks into every stadium as a global icon and a national treasure. Applause followed him out of the press conference room, just as it follows him out of tunnels across the world.

He insists he will leave this World Cup with a conscience “not 100% but 1,000%” clear. He has given everything. The numbers, the medals, the memories say he is right.

What he cannot control now is how this final chapter is written.

Does Martinez trust the old king for one more knockout night against Spain, or does he hand the pen to Ramos and the next generation?

The choice will tell Portugal where it is heading. The performance will tell Ronaldo whether this really is his last dance, or if there is still one more step left in those famous boots.