Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 114. (Read 67455 times)

Certainly, imagine if you were a young player, having an idol there encouraging you and passing on all your experience is a big difference, it completely changes the atmosphere of the entire team. Cristiano Ronaldo might even play a little to give the youngsters more peace of mind, calling him up at 41 years old I'm sure is the best thing to do

I agree with you. The world cup is not just about playing football. But it's also about mental because it will be watched by billions of people from all over the world. You brought your country to the international stage. Even the presidents of several countries also attended the world cup. So it is certain that extraordinary mental pressure will occur on young players, especially those who rarely compete on the international stage. With the presence of legendary veteran players like Messi and Ronaldo, I think it is a tremendous blessing for Argentina and Portugal. These two players can support young players with motivation and also maintain their mentality in big matches like the World Cup.

I've been able to read a lot of opinions from different people and on different sports websites concerning the possibility of Cristiano Ronaldo playing in the next edition of the FIFA World Cup and for me that's been opportuned to watch the Portuguese star right from when he announced himself to the global stage at the 2004 UEFA Euros championship which was hosted in his home country Portugal till this very moment, I think the Portuguese star is very likely to feature in the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Cristiano Ronaldo is one player that's been very intentional about his health/fitness over the years and considering his injury history, he's not a player that's prone to major injuries so with his current level of fitness and performance, I think he'll be fit to participate in the next edition of the FIFA World Cup in two years time.

Cristiano Ronaldo might not be q regular starter if he succeeds to feature for the Portugal national team in 2026 because of the young, talented, energetic and pacy players in the team but I think he'll play some major roles for the team because of his wealth of experience. For a player that's already in 5 different World Cup finals, Cristiano Ronaldo I think will make a great impact in the team and that's why the current manager of the Portuguese national team Roberto Martinez is always calling him up to the national team games.

op You are right. When Cristiano Ronaldo was sitting on the bench in the 2023 World Cup, other players were given a chance. Of course, we feel very bad. Cristiano Ronaldo sitting on the bench and giving another player a chance did not set the course for Portugal at all, but the team did not do much good by doing it, on the contrary. Worse, Portugal's journey to the 2023 World Cup did not go well. Because when the condition of the Portugal team was very bad, Cristiano Ronaldo single-handedly improved the team. However, when I saw Ronaldo sitting on the bench in the 2023 World Cup Portugal game, it was actually very sad. Of course, we can hope that Cristiano Ronaldo will definitely play in the 2026 World Cup.

Even if they are not starters, it is very important to take these great veteran players to help and support the other teammates... They are very experienced players who have already experienced major competitions, so it makes perfect sense for them to participate in the World Cup, the importance is not just playing.

Both are very consistent players and take great care of their fitness. We can see how hard Ronaldo and Ibrahimovich work in training and exercising. Their consistency is on a different level than other players. That's why they are still called up and part of the first team at Euro 2024. They still have the physicality and stamina of players in their early 30s and coupled with the long experience of both of them I think it will be very worth looking forward to.

Getting Ronaldo to play for Portugal could very well be something to care about, it does look like it could be a possibility. We are not going to end up with him being irrelevant that part is sure, but politics play a big role in footballer selection as well. We could very well see him get a lot of attention or we could see him not be played at all or even picked.

Usually managers are the ones that decide it, and if a manager loves a player more than they should, they could pick someone they shouldn't, or if they dislike a player more than they should they may end up not picking someone they should as well. This is why I think it is going to be all about the relationships between the players and the managers as well.

In the last World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo was benched for some matches not considering the performance but because of some conflict between Cristiano Ronaldo and the manager. The manager said in front of the media that he did it to give the youth a chance but to leave Ronaldo out and give the youth a chance is really a stupid argument. Apart from Cristiano Ronaldo, there were 10 other players in the team. It is a wrong decision to bench a player like Ronaldo to give another player a chance. In the last World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo tried but he could not bring his team to a respectable position, that's why he did not decide to retire in the last World Cup either. We might see Cristiano Ronaldo wearing the Portugal jersey at the 2026 World Cup.

Yes!
I also think it is very likely and entirely possible that Cristiano Ronaldo will participate in the next World Cup as a player, after all there is only two years left and currently he continues to play "a lot of football".

In fact, not only him, but I see that two world football stars, already in the final stage of their careers, have been called up to defend their countries again on the next FIFA date: In addition to Cristiano Ronaldo, now 38 years old, there is also the Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 41 years old currently.

Even with their advanced age, they remain part of the plans of their respective teams, who face their first games in the Euro 2024 qualifiers in March. It will be a good test to see how their physical performances are and how difficult they will make it for the opponents.

I still think that Ronaldo is one of the best players of Portugal and he should always have a place. He can always make a difference. Yes, his age is catching up on him but he is still playing at a quite high level  and still easily scores goals.

This is so wrong. I have watched a few Portugal games and yes Ronaldo has been an important player for them, but they do have several remarkable players and Ronaldo would be nothing without them. When you talk about a one man show, I could rather understand when you mean a team like Norway with Haaland even though that be wrong as there are players like Martin Ødegaard, but still calling Portugal a one man team is nonsense. Out of the 12 goals that Portugal scored at the World Cup, Ronaldo scored 1. I know he was put on the bench here and there, but a one man team would look differently in terms of the statistics.

It is clear to me that Ronaldo is doing his best to be in shape enough to actually matter next world cup as well. Not that he may start the games, but even if he could become a bench player, he would love to go to at least another one. He is already 39 years old, and we have 2 more years, so he could be about 41 years old when the cup is being played, and I feel like it could actually be possible.

Portugal has better players than Ronaldo now, not in general, like not in career level but at the current moment and they will have better players than a 41 year old Ronaldo for sure. But the question we need to ask, do they have 25 of them? Sure a few, but 25 players better than Ronaldo? I do not think so, he could still play.

Yes, but when mentioning the term GOAT you have to include D10S and Pele.

It's such a wonderful sport and I think instead of arguing who is the GOAT, it's best to enjoy them all.

The more, the better in my mind.

I want to keep watching the beautiful game with more and more GOATs.

I also don't think there is a single player in Argentina or Portugal who has the capacity to replace our two GOATs at the moment. These two players are an example of what a football player looks like at the peak. One is called "the machine" because of its incredible consistency and super hard training. The other is called "alien" because it is endowed with a natural will that may only appear once every 100 years. Both are the goals of all footballers in the world. I think the young players from Portugal and Argentina are very lucky to be able to play with them. And I think they both still deserve to be called upon to be a motivation for young players.

Even now, Portugal is a one man team led by Ronaldo. During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the coach (Fernando Santos) experimented by benching Ronaldo and giving chances to some of the younger players. It didn't worked well and in the end they lost the match to Morocco and were kicked out from the tournament. And it's not like they don't have any promising younger players. They have quite a few of them, such as João Félix, Gonçalo Ramos, Rafael Leão and Pedro Neto. But none of these players are capable of replacing Ronaldo.

I like your post because we are about to define an entire team that only replaces Ronaldo...

Maybe Portugal should send a request to the FIFA association asking them to allow for more players on the pitch because they will soon have to replace Ronaldo.

I mean, Portugal won the European Championship in the past. In Qatar they were too unpredictable, no consistency. They lost against Morocco in the quarterfinals though, which I think can happen to any team as Morocco was this one surprise team that was about to achieve the impossible. Since they kicked out Spain in the round of 16, I think it is not a nightmare to lose against them although Portugal should have been warned.

But I agree that they should still be counted as a top team that has all chances.

op I agree with you. Messi is the number 1 player in the world, his only shortcoming was not winning the World Cup, which was also filled by the Argentina team in the 2022 World Cup. So Messi should retire from the team as he is getting older day by day so Argentina has many young players who will get a chance to play well in Argentina national team. By doing this, the Argentinian players will be able to perform well. But no one can replace Messi. Messi is definitely a quality player. No one in the world can replace Messi, but due to his age, he should retire with respect so that Argentina team relies on young players.

Cristiano Ronaldo's physical form and decision-making really surprises me to this day, his power to always stay focused and bring out the best is incredible, he really is different and one of the great names in the history of football...

Playing at a high level at an advanced age I still believe that it is a genetic fact and also as was the history of injuries throughout his career, there is another player who played until he was 40 years old and with a physical shape well above normal, I don't know if you remember him.. Zé Roberto, played in the German championship at Bayen

If we sum up his physical characteristics + his insane motivation to play throughout his entire career and even beyond (for most football players, their career ends at 35, but not for Ronaldo), then it’s definitely less than in 100 years 
Felix can replace Ronaldo in midfield (I agree that he is unstable), Ramos can replace Ronaldo as a center forward, and Leao can replace him as a winger... but no one can replace him in all positions at once 
But in general, I believe that Portugal has sufficient variety of players and a qualified coach will have no problem putting together any formation he wants from them. Whether Ronaldo will be here or not is not so important (although of course I would like him to appear at least as a substitute at the next World Cup).

The performance a d strength is what the age factor do attack first before any other factors around the player because with almost every humans, it's normal to loose strength as age comes on them before their physical appearance would then show the effects of the age telling on them, so they will definitely not be able to perform like before.

The players may be trying to keep fit by carrying out routine training but then they will still not be as effective as they were when they were much younger so it's a general thing for players and not just their performance but even how well they will be productive and how well they will be contributing to the team will also be greatly affected and the team wouldn't want to be battling with having poor results when they have got players who could actually have helped them they will just have to sell off the old players and it's good for the old players to just resign.