 |
|
January 29, 2025
The 2026 FIFA World Cup is already on the horizon and it could very well be Ronaldo's last chance to taste the silverware of the most wanted trophy in this sport... The Portuguese icon will be 41 by the start of the tournament, but he'll certainly won't lack the motivation to win the World Cup...
Even charging towards his 40th birthday, soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo is still going strong. Having moved away from the elite levels of European soccer to play in Saudi Arabia, Ronaldo keeps himself available for the national side, and he may still be a key part of Portugal's bid to reach the next World Cup.
The next edition of the world’s biggest soccer event is in 2026, jointly hosted by Canada, Mexico and the USA. By the time the tournament comes around, Ronaldo will be 41 years old, an age at which most players have already long hung up their boots. But with fire still in his belly, Ronaldo is keen to pull on his Portugal shirt and attempt to help his nation to the title.
But there is a long journey ahead of CR7 and Portugal before that. Qualification for the 2026 World Cup first has to be secured. Fortunately for Portugal, that has been a given for them recently, having made the last six consecutive World Cups. But the country has never got its hands on the ultimate prize in soccer, and what a way for Ronaldo to sign off his career if he could help them achieve that.
Cristiano Ronaldo - Another World Cup:
As is the current trend in soccer at the moment, the World Cup is expanding. For the first time, there will be 48 teams playing at the 2026 World Cup, boosting the number of participating teams from the usual 32. That obviously brings about a totally different format through the first stage, with twelve groups of four teams.
Progressing to a new round of 32 will be the top two from each group and the eight best third-place finishers. With the growth of the World Cup, that means extra slots are available. This time, UEFA will send 16 teams to the World Cup instead of the usual 13. So even though they will be expected to progress without too many issues, the chances of Portugal getting there have technically increased.
The FIFA World Cup is one of the most bet-on events in sports. It pulls in an appeal from even casual bettors, who may fancy a flutter after getting sucked into all the hard-to-ignore hype and publicity surrounding a tournament. Punters are typically more prepared to engage in a bet on the overall outcome or support their own nation with a patriotic wager on matches at the World Cup.
Around the time of the World Cup, there is also a lot of interest in betting bonus offers at online bookmakers as well. Operators understand the massive popularity of the biggest soccer tournament in the world, and it’s a good time to drum up business. It’s a good idea to use a bookmaker review site for up-to-date information about a range of betting bonuses, to help select the best.
Portugal doesn’t know who they will be facing in the 2026 World Cup qualification yet. That will be determined by their Nations League quarter-final tie against Denmark, which will be played in March of 2025. If they lose that quarter-final they would be in qualification Group C against Greece, Scotland, and Belarus.
If they beat Denmark in the Nations League quarter-final, they will go into Group F of 2026 World Cup qualifying against Hungary, Republic of Ireland, and Armenia. Whichever path they take, they will be red-hot favorites to claim the top spot in their qualification group, so seeing Ronaldo at the 2026 World Cup is a real probability.
Ronaldo became the first player ever to make 200 international appearances when he turned out for his double-century-making game against Iceland in June 2023. In late 2024 he became the most capped international player ever on his 217th appearance.
How influential is he still? Back in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, Ronaldo was Portugal’s top-scorer, netting six times, even without playing every minute of their eight qualification matches.
Ronaldo wasn’t anywhere near his best at the 2024 European Championships, as Portugal bowed out in the quarter-finals. He was so demanding of the ball, that his presence on the pitch often took away from the team’s flow. With the end product not there as he failed to score in regulation or extra time, Portugal, at times, looked worse for having him in the starting line-up.
There was plenty of speculation afterward that Ronaldo may retire from international football, but there has been no hint of that from him and he continues to play on. CR7 captained his country in four of five UEFA Nations League appearances last year.
Within those five appearances, he scored in four of them to tally five goals. After his Euro 2024 misery, and so many questions about whether he was now a hindrance to the national side, it was a return to top international form that he and his country badly needed to see.
If you look at the record that Cristiano Ronaldo has for his country in World Cup qualifiers, then it’s hard to imagine he will be left out of the squad. Ronaldo has scored 36 goals and had 14 assists in 47 World Cup qualification matches, which is a remarkable rate from a remarkable player.
He will, no doubt, play his part in helping them qualify. Given the potential level of opposition Portugal will face, there’s plenty of opportunity for him to add to his international tally of goals.
It’s hard to talk about the 2026 World Cup qualification, without, of course, speculating whether Ronaldo can help Portugal to their first-ever World Cup title. In World Cup matches, Ronaldo has scored 8 goals in 22 appearances, which is a goal every 2.75 games.
Portugal’s best-ever finish at a World Cup tournament was at Germany in 2006 when they finished fourth. At the 2022 edition, their quarter-final exit was their best finish since that run to the final four.
Well before the start of qualification for the 2026 World Cup, Portugal had a long price of 15.0 decimal odds (14/1 fractional, 1400 moneyline) at sportsbooks to win the tournament outright, giving them an implied probability of 6.7% of doing it.
That put them a long way behind the front-runners for success like Spain, Brazil, England, and France, each of which was trading at less than half of Portugal’s quoted odds.
But this is Ronaldo, a man who has shown tremendous resilience throughout his career. He has already bounced back from the poor show at Euro 2022 and the fact that he is no longer playing at the elite club level could be a huge benefit. There are fewer physical demands on him, which should help keep CR7 fresh for the World Cup qualifiers.
It should help to preserve his longevity to see him turn out at the 2026 World Cup. Ronaldo has set all sorts of records throughout his career, but even if he gets to the next World Cup, there’s one that he won’t break, and that’s the oldest player to appear at the tournament. That record is held by Egypt's Essam El-Hadary for 45 years and 161 days. So maybe the 2030 World Cup will be on Ronaldo’s radar too?
At the 2026 World Cup, Portugal will be in the mix, they will be in the race for the title. At the end of the day, they have something that a lot of teams heading to the tournament don’t have - a talisman, an enigma, and one of the greatest players of all time. With that, who knows, there could be greater history waiting to be written by Ronaldo.
Cristiano Ronaldo next game for Al Nassr is on January 30, against Al Raed for the Saudi Pro League. You can watch Al Raed vs Al Nassr, Espanyol vs Real Madrid, AS Roma vs Eintracht, Steaua Bucuresti vs Manchester United, Tottenham vs Elfsborg and Ajax vs Galatasaray, all matches provided from our live soccer game pages.
Al Nassr next game:
Al Raed vs Al Nassr kick-off time (30-01-2025):
Beijing (China) | UTC/GMT+7: 00:00
India (New Delhi) | UTC/GMT+4.30: 21:30
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | UTC/GMT+2: 19:00
Spain (Madrid) | UTC/GMT+1: 18:00
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | UTC/GMT+0: 17:00
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | UTC/GMT-3: 14:00
New York (United States) | UTC/GMT-4: 13:00
Los Angeles (United States) | UTC/GMT-7: 10:00
Sources: ronaldo7.net / onefootball.com / olymipcs.com
