His place as an all-time great can never be questioned, but the last few years of Cristiano Ronaldo’s stellar career runs the risk of tainting his image as an unstoppable world-beater.
After a return to Manchester United that didn’t go according to the script with a mutual termination of his contract. At the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, he suffered the unthinkable of being dropped from the starting team. This was only made worse in comparison to the tournament of his great rival Lionel Messi who went on to heroically lift the trophy.
Many where underwhelmed by his choice of move to Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. While he’s been scoring at a rate better than a goal a game, it’s a career choice that’s always going to be viewed as one where he chose money over competing at a high level.
It leaves an obvious question to ask. Can Ronaldo still make an impact at the highest level?
Part of the growing criticism of Ronaldo as he gets older is that his style of play is not suited to what makes teams successful in the modern game. Strikers are not just measured by their goals any more with more focus being put on their work rate in aspects like a high team press.
That part of his game has never been Ronaldo’s strong suit and this has only been accentuated in an age of ex-players being pundits armed with touchscreens and telestrators that get used to highlight any failure to track back or position yourself correctly.
After 18 months out of sight from most fans of European football, Ronaldo now has a perfect chance to show that he still has what it takes at Euro 2024.
It’s a tournament that’s given him highs and lows in the past. He went into his first one in 2004 as a generational talent in a side that had home advantage. Instead of conquering all in front of an expectant home crowd, the teenager had to endure a teary final as Portugal lost to Greece in one of the tournament’s biggest shock results.
Ronaldo would have his moment of redemption though with a triumph in 2016 as captain. After going off in the final early through injury, the sight of him driving his teammates on from the sidelines became an iconic moment in his only international trophy win.
At the time, his Euro winners’ medal was an important personal bragging right as Messi had yet to win any silverware with Argentina.
However, since then, Messi has strengthened his claim to the “greatest of all time” crown. He’s now got more international trophies than Ronaldo. More Ballon d’Or awards too. After a time of constant back and forth with countless statistical comparisons, the Argentine is on top when it comes to the stats that matter.
What better way for Ronaldo to bounce back than to make a big impact at Euro 2024? His desire to score goals for his country seems as strong as ever. He scored no less than 10 goals in their qualifying campaign extending his international record to an incredible 128.
It won’t just be the goalscoring numbers that fans will be looking at in Germany though. It’s his all-round team contribution that the critics will scrutinise. He’s still got the captain’s armband and he’ll relish the opportunity to lead by example.
When he walks onto the field, he will set an extraordinary record as the first man to play in six Euro tournament. What will matter to him more though is the opportunity to set the record straight.