One can sum up Cristiano RonaldoThe career of two photos. No, not the five Ballon d’Ors or the Champions League titles he won. The two pictures are from different World Cups, taken at a time before the zenith and after the nadir of his career.The first is from the 2006 World Cup and the second is from the 2026 World Cup. The first had him flashing the bench, a petulant upstart who would go on to dominate the game. The latter saw him crying, perhaps unable to understand that he was no longer the player he once was. In between those two moments, we saw a player who struggled to greatness, rewrote records, excelled in the game and, in the end, could not tell the difference between the truth and his delusions.But let’s take a walk down memory lane.In 2006, England met Portugal in a feisty encounter that saw Ronaldo team up with Manchester United Wayne Rooney sent off for putting his foot in the wrong place. A proud Portuguese, Ronaldo defied the referee to send Rooney off and then became England’s Public Enemy Number 1 by flashing the bench.The English rags, as they usually do, lost their rags, calling for Ronaldo’s head, but Sir Alex Ferguson used that opportunity to create a siege mentality that led to his third great United team, with Rooney and Ronaldo at its core.That moment also inspired Ronaldo to become the player we know today. While statisticians prefer the version of 2007-08, when he plundered 42 goals in a season that ended with United winning the Premier League and Champions League, purists prefer the version of 2006-07, when he was the perfect amalgamation of touch and teasing teenager and the goal-scoring animal that he can be. Before that, most dribblers were relegated to the Premier League redundancy bin as people who couldn’t make it on a cold night in Stoke.Everyone knows what followed next.Ronaldo left rainy Manchester for warm Madrid, became the most expensive player in history, and became the foundation on which Real Madrid built their new Galacticos, which saw them win four Champions League titles during his tenure. His football opponent in: Lionel Messi Defined the game for the better part of a decade, but even at Real, Ronaldo’s influence is waning. The marauding winger made fewer and fewer winding runs, instead becoming a player who only focused on one aspect of football. score goals. With age, that sphere has shrunk, to the point that by the time the 2026 World Cup rolls around, it will be the only penalty spot.The journey that began with petulance ended in tragedy. Ronaldo tried to keep a brave face about it all, channeling his inner Sinatra to admit that he left with a “clear conscience”, that he had won three titles with Portugal, and that Portugal had never won a “big trophy before Cristiano”. It looks like a person trying to convince himself rather than the observer. Of course, purists will point out that in the Euro 2016 final, Ronaldo was injured and didn’t even play when Portugal took the lead. And the jury is still out on whether two Nations League titles, a tournament designed to emphasize glorified friends, can be considered “big”.Perhaps Ronaldo’s rise and fall feels more personal because of the similarity in age. When a fan is almost the same age as a footballer, give or take a couple of years, one’s destinies are almost intertwined.In 2003, all the United forums were excited about a new signing from Sporting Lisbon, a kid named Cristiano. It is even more confusing to know that the Ronaldo in his name comes from an American president rather than the Brazilian Il Fenomeno. We’re told he gave John O’Shea a migraine when Sporting Lisbon played Manchester United in a pre-season friendly and Sir Alex refused to leave before signing him, which saw United’s players forced to spend some extra time on the bus. One remembers his debut clearly, coming against Bolton and wearing the famous Number 7 vacated by David Beckham after the boots started flying in the dressing room. Who does he think this guy is? How does he wear the number worn by George Best, Eric Cantona and Becks?He came on for Nicky Butt in the 61st minute, a teenager with gaping teeth and horrible-looking hair. When the game was over, no one dared to question whether he should wear the shirt. As George Best said. “It was without a doubt the most exciting debut performance I’ve ever seen. There are players with some similarities [to me]but this guy has more than the others, especially since he’s actually two-legged. He can play on either wing, beat players with ease and put in dangerous crosses with his left or right peg. When was the last time you saw that?”He spent six years there, winning three league titles, two League Cups, an FA Cup, a Club World Cup and a Champions League. During his peak, he was like combining many of the greats of the Premier League. someone who can head like Shearer, fold the ball like Henry, score a free-kick like Beckham (albeit in a different style) and beat defenders like Ginola.Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford 12 years ago and the highlight of his stay was Peter Drury’s commentary. “A walking work of art, harvest, beyond appreciation, beyond forgery or imitation. CR7 reunites.” Unfortunately, this is as good as it gets for Ronaldo, as it becomes apparent that while he has a knack for scoring goals, his presence will always leave a team at a disadvantage. Results went south and Ronaldo’s old team-mate Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who played United’s best brand of attacking football since Sir Alex Ferguson left, was finally dismissed. Ronaldo eventually cut his contract after giving a Roy Keane-esque interview about the club and he went to Saudi Arabia, where even the local laws were submitted to his will, allowing him to stay with his unmarried lover. With the arrival of the World Cup, apart from hardcore Ronaldo stans like iShowSpeed and Piers Morgan, it became apparent that no matter how much the spirit wants, the flesh has dried up.One meme summed up the divide between Ronaldo’s ability and his reality, mocking the status of the Golden Boot Race. Messi (7), Mbappe (7), Haaland (7) and CR7.Perhaps the comparisons to Messi are what make the difference even stronger. Messi, just a few years younger, plays with more freedom than ever before, elevating his teammates. Ronaldo, on the other hand, is like an albatross around his team’s neck. Now, one should point out that while Ronaldo and Messi played for the same strong teams during their Real Madrid and Barcelona seasons, Argentina has always been a better footballing nation compared to Portugal. Messi is always surrounded by better players in the world. The cleanest analogy comes from cricket. Brian Lara: and: Sachin Tendulkar also mentioned in the same breath, but West Indies don’t have a team to challenge for the ODI World Cup like India did, even though they have become T20 beasts.Either way, when it comes to Ronaldo, the numbers aren’t even the most painful part. Ronaldo still took the shots, still ran, still did the familiar little jumps before a free-kick, still raised his hands when the pass didn’t come, still looked at the referee as if the game owed him one last favor. But the body no longer obeys the mythology. The jump is not there. The middle yard is not there. The sharpness inside the box, that fearsome assurance that he would turn any loose ball into a funeral procession for defenders, was conspicuously absent.
Against Spain, it became impossible to ignore. Portugal carries the idea of Ronaldo more than Ronaldo himself. Every attack seemed to come to him a second too late or leave him a second too early. The man who once bent entire defenses out of shape is now waiting for the game to come to him. And when it did, it no longer came with the old inevitability. At the last moment, when someone jumped, it was 5ft 8in Bernardo Silva instead of 6ft 1in Cristiano Ronaldo.That’s probably why the tears felt so shaky. These are not the tears of a man raging against the dying light. They are the tears of an old man who cannot fathom that the world no longer bends to his will, that it is now indifferent to his whims.And for a fan, that’s a tough watch. It’s easy to mock the vanity, the tantrums, the interviews, the fanboys, the endless need to remind everyone of his own greatness. But it’s harder to see the player who made you fall in love with the excesses of football becoming an act of honoring himself. In some ways, it is reminiscent of MS Dhoni’s post-2019 funk in the Indian Premier League, another man who, like Voldemort, worships at the altar of number seven.
Young fans hold a photo of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo before the World Cup round of 16 soccer match against Spain in Arlington, Texas, near Dallas, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)
In 2006, wink described a new era of world domination. The tears of 2026 will be the end of that mirage. And for those of us who grew up with him, who hated him, loved him, defended him, made fun of him and secretly wanted one last jump at the back post, it hurts because we no longer watch Ronaldo lose in Spain. We watch Ronaldo disappear in time.