Topic: FIFA World Cup 2026 :Canada/Mexico/United States: Discussion Thread - page 60. (Read 45128 times)

You can focus on younger players and that's fine, nobody says he should bring in all the veterans, but if Ronaldo is still playing and he doesn't call up Ronaldo, there will be a lot of upset fans and he will be on the edge of the seat, if they do badly he will be fired mercilessly and would have hard time finding another job.

Ronaldo has a HUGE influence at Portugal, and globally too, that dude single handedly made a WHOLE LEAGUE famous, so its clear that it would be smarter to get him. It's better to fail with him, than fail without him. Messi is loved by his manager a lot, so we know that if he is playing there will not even be a single doubt that he would be getting that call up and will represent and even start games.

I am a person who has always asked this type of question , I hope that is the case, well I know that Poertugal is going to have CR7, I am sure of that, unless they change the coach and bring in someone like Ten Hag, but honestly I like person who always watches the South American qualifiers, I have realized that Argentina is a team that Depends very much on Messi, and Messi is a player who has always done very well in Argentina, in fact Argentina's classification is one of the players that In reality, he has placed First in the Standings , but if they play without Messi, it is likely that the other teams can give him more of a fight and that they can Even beat him, but Messi can score a goal in any game, out of nowhere, out of nothing. Respect he goes and a free kick and he doesn't forgive it, he scores a goal then with that, because it makes the teams become very decisive with it and their morale drops, currently I have seen that this happens to the Teams that go with him to play.

Argentina is a team that can make a difference, it is one of the teams that are showing that why they are the defending champions, they have 12 points out of 12 points, this has made them very alarmed in Brazil because they have barely finished with 7 points and They are on par with Uruguay and BVenezuela, yes with Venezuela, which has Surprised a lot , which I think is great, I hope that the level that these teams are showing continues the same because the moment they reach the World Cup they can do well. games against the big ones , like Germany, France, among other teams, for me I have hope and faith that they can go to the world cup for the first time, now I consider that if Veenzuela manages to tie Argentina it is something they have to celebrate like never before , but come on, I'm realistic, if Argentina has Messi it will be very difficult to win, very very difficult, now with everything they have shown I think they can make the difference, I would like something different to happen.

In addition to Scaloni being loved by his people, his contract was recently renewed (right after the World Cup) until 2026, so obviously there is no reason to say otherwise... Scaloni will lead Argentina in the next World Cup.

We even know that between the coach and "Chiqui" Tapia, president of the AFA, there is great mutual gratitude.
I even thought there would be some "tension" taking into account the economic differences between the two proposals (from the coach and the AFA) for renewing the contract, but the coffers were duly filled after the recent win in Qatar (US$42 million) so This impasse ended up being resolved very easily.

The only doubt we still have is about Messi, as Scaloni is guaranteed!

Hahahaha man, how can you put in doubt Scaloni as a manager of Argentina national team? are you crazy? he lose 1 of his alst 51 games... the people loves him, and the players loves him more than the people, i cant see any chance of him going out , only if he have a personal or familair problem, but clearly not.

Lionel Scaloni has contract until 2026 so it is certain that he will be able to remain as Argentina coach until the 2026 World Cup starts.
As long as he doesn't make mistakes and can give his best for the next 3 years then he won't be fired.

Talking about Ronaldo for Portugal the coach seems to be prioritizing young players and it is unlikely that Ronaldo will be included in the Portugal national team list.
However, I sure Fernando Santos has the best strategy and way to make Portugal stronger.

I actually do not think that Messi is going to retire before the next World Cup. Because right now he is very interested in performing for his national team instead of his club. So I think he still wants to have some achievement with his national team. But at the same time probably that doesn’t mean he wants to win another World Cup. He is going for some other trophies. It is true that the World Cup is a long way away and he might not be in the best physical shape going into the next World Cup. His performance might also drop. But I have a feeling that he is going to play in the next World Cup.

No, I think this is a challenge for young people so that they can develop even more, so when they hear like that, they have to be more able to show that they are more worthy of being called up and playing in the national team than players who are already old.
Yes, there are negative sides to things like this, but there are also many positive sides too depending on how we respond. Obviously there will always be pros and cons to this, especially when there are many potential young players to regenerate them. But on the other hand if they want to be looked at more deeply by the coach, they also have to show their best abilities.

Three years is a lot and there are many possibilities during this time. I think there is a chance for Messi to even get retired before the start of the 2025 World Cup and even if this player is a legend, still he can't have a good performance in this tournament. The best thing he can do is to get retire during the time when he's in the good form and achieved the titles he wanted to achieve. Otherwise, there is the chance for this player to have a weak performance.

Next world cup is three years away and Lionel Scaloni can't give assurances such as this one. How can he be sure that he will remain as the coach till 2026? And getting included in the squad is one thing, and finding a place in the playing XI is another. This is what happened with Cristiano Ronaldo. He was included in the squad for the 2022 Qatar World Cup. But then the coach (Fernando Santos) refused to include him in the starting XI for a few matches in the knockout phase and instead opted for some of the younger players.

I remember even during the Qatar World Cup when Argentine won the title and Messi was performing well for his team, Lionel Sebastián Scaloni said he wants to use Messi for the next world cup in 2026, which is a good reason to say there's a high chance for Messi to play in 2026 world cup while this is wrong because like this many younger players will lose a chance to have good performance for their national team.

However, it will still be more than two years and will he still be able to perform optimally because Portugal already has several names of young players who are quite great although they are not yet comparable to Ronaldo but they can be relied on.
Moreover if it is true that Ronaldo has the opportunity and is called up to Portugal list of players for the 2026 World Cup I am sure he will not play the full game and will only be able to participate in half the game.
For now we admit that Ronaldo playing quality is still competitive but who knows what the future will be like in 2026 because this is the World Cup, not playing in Asian football.

I think he will retire at the age of approximately 43 years so there are still several years for Ronaldo to have more titles or awards at the end of his retirement.
He will become a legend for Portugal football.

I am aware that Argentina coach Lionel Sebastián Scaloni has assured Messi that the door of the national team will be always opened to him. But his challenge will be age and injury. His performance might reduce due to these two factors but his experience will be relevant to the team. Portugal's former coach Fernando Santos had a strained relationship with Ronaldo. The coach even went to the extent of benching one of the greatest footballers on earth in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. Ronaldo was not comfortable with Santos and it caused disaffection in the national team. But the current coach Roberto Martinez is ensuring that Ronaldo has the best of time and the striker is not doing badly. Martinez might still allow the five-time Ballon d'Or winner to be in his next World Cup squad but it will also depends on the performance of the striker.

Yes, age doesn't lie, although he still plays well, he is not as good as when he was in his golden years.
It can be said that he is a player who plays a vital role in the Portugal squad, one of which is that he is a player who can provide motivation for young players. But will they dare to take the risk to keep Ronaldo? To be honest, Potugal is now one of the countries that is experiencing good development. It will be a complicated situation, I agree with that. The coach must be able to be wise in considering this, which he thinks is more beneficial.

The 2026 World Cup is still quite far away, and many things can happen so it will be quite difficult to predict Ronaldo participation in the next World Cup. The most realistic thing is that Ronaldo steps down to give younger players a chance, because no coach has the courage to make him sit on the bench if Ronaldo participates. His presence at the World Cup will certainly have a big influence on the Portuguese national team, and will make this grand event have extraordinary appeal.

It could be that Ronaldo's ambition to participate in the World Cup will receive full acceptance and support from the Portuguese national team, and of course Ronaldo will not play the full 90 minutes. The goal is to keep morale up and motivate the team and to honor their legend. After this World Cup 2026, maybe Ronaldo will really decide for to retire.

The impact of ageing can't be prevented. But the big question is whether that will prevent him from getting selected to the playing XI. In case he is not up to the mark, then it can create a lot of complicated scenarios. For almost two decades, Ronaldo has been like an one man army for the Portuguese team. So if he wants to participate in the 2026 tournament, can the coach deny his ambition even if he is not in good shape? But then another question will arise. If Ronaldo is not in good form, then can the coach overlook the younger players in his favor?

With his incredible ambition, it's not impossible to see Ronaldo back in the next World Cup, even though he's already 41. If you look at it now, I think he still deserves to be part of the Portugal squad, the only problem is that the next World Cup is still a long time away and I don't know for sure whether he will experience a significant decline or not. Decreasing speed is a given, but if he can maintain his fitness until the 2026 World Cup then it's not impossible that he'll be part of the Portugal squad that goes to the World Cup.

If Ronaldo wants to participate in the 2026 FIFA World Cup, then he will take part. It is mainly up to him. Because even now, he is performing exceptionally and Portugal is dependent on him to a great degree. And also, he just asked Al Nassr to extend his contract till 2027. If he was planning to retire earlier than this date, then he could have never asked them to do it. The message I am getting is that Ronaldo is still interested to represent Portugal in 2026 World Cup and he is preparing really hard by taking part in the qualifier matches.

Cristiano Ronaldo did not have a great World Cup recently, so I'm not even sure the coach will call him for the next one.

I'm sure everyone remembers here that his replacement, who was much younger, played much better than Cristiano Ronaldo.

I think we won't see CR7 in the next world cup in the field, but maybe we'll see him at the ads

That is not a bad odd, 80% is definitely something that is realistic. I still wonder what Ronaldo situation will be like, he is 38 right now at 2023, that means 39 at 24, and 40 at 25 so that means he will be 41 years old when the next world cup happens. Do we really think that a 41 year old Cristiano Ronaldo could play at the world cup level?

I mean Portugal is not a terrible team, if we were talking about some terrible team then they would not have any other player, but can't Portugal find a single player to play at striker position better than a 41 year old Ronaldo? I do not think that he could be playing, Messi won't be that old, he would be like 36 or 37 I think, that's still fine, understandable levels, but 41 seems way too old.

We had an older generation of players like Ronaldo, Messi, and Neymar in the last years and they were performing pretty well during all these years, however, Ronaldo couldn't achieve the World Cup title with Portugal's national team even during the time when he was a younger player that's why we can't expect to see better performance from this 38-year player in the 2026 world cup when gets even older and I think the best thing they can do is to try finding other talents instead of Ronaldo.