Cristiano Ronaldo

Portugal · Premier League · FW · POR · age 41

Cristiano Ronaldo controlling the ball in Portugal's red home shirt.
Photo Ludovic Péron / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0

The last dance

The one trophy that still eludes him

Cristiano Ronaldo arrives at 41 as the most-capped men's international in history and the all-time leading scorer in the international game — 226 appearances and 143 goals for Portugal in the projection, numbers that may never be approached again. He has won the Champions League five times, the European Championship in 2016, and individual honours by the armful.

The World Cup is the one prize that has escaped him. Across five tournaments since 2006 the trophy has stayed just out of reach — a quarter-final here, a last-16 exit there, never the final his career seems to demand. 2026 would be a sixth World Cup, a record in itself.

There is no disguising what this is: the last act of one of the two defining footballers of his era, chasing the only honour missing from an otherwise complete collection. Whatever happens, it is almost certainly the final time the World Cup will see him.

2026 World Cup squad profile

Position
FW
Squad role
Projected starter
Position rank
#1
Intl caps
226
Intl goals
143
Intl assists
46
0.84(model rating, 0–1)
43.1%

See Cristiano Ronaldo on the full Portugal scoring list →

Recent form

Cooling

2025/26 international form vs the player's multi-season baseline (7.43 vs 7.74).

Major tournament stats

TournamentMPMinGAxGShKPPrgPPrgCTklInt
Euro 20245506013.023552100
World Cup 20225303101.911451500
Euro 20204379514.9153193011
World Cup 20184381402.7224213400
All tournaments181,56910212.571165010011
Event data from StatsBomb open data, covering the World Cup, Euro, Copa América and AFCON finals. Small per-tournament samples. Totals shown, not per-90 rates.
▸How to read this table— 11 columns explained
MP
Matches played in the tournament.
Min
Total minutes on the pitch.
G
Goals scored (penalties in normal play included; shootouts excluded).
A
Assists: passes that directly led to a goal.
xG
Expected goals: summed per-shot quality (StatsBomb's model).
Sh
Shots taken.
KP
Key passes: passes that led to a shot.
PrgP
Progressive passes: completed passes moving the ball ≥10m toward goal.
PrgC
Progressive carries: carries advancing ≥5m toward goal.
Tkl
Tackles won.
Int
Interceptions.

Tournament scouting radar

Defending

Tackles won / 90
0.06
8
Interceptions / 90
0.06
18
Ball recoveries / 90
1.89
5
Blocks / 90
0.80
18
Clearances / 90
0.46
46
Pressures / 90
7.06
5

Passing & progression

Prog. passes / 90
2.87
60
Key passes / 90
0.92
48
Prog. carries / 90
5.74
37
Pass completion %
80.9%
83

Possession

Carries / 90
22.89
35
Dribbles / 90
1.15
45

Per-90 rates from major-tournament event data (StatsBomb), ranked vs 65 forwards with ≥270 minutes in the same finals. Higher = better.

429
Career matches
36,411
Career minutes
411
Goals
101
Assists
123.3
xG

Career percentiles

Goals / 90
1.02
99
xG / 90
0.30
80
xAG / 90
0.06
54

vs 189 FW players with ≥3,000 career minutes in the dataset. Higher = better.

Career: goals & xG by season

GoalsxG
Career goals and xG by season, 15 seasons from 2009-10 to 2022-23, 411 total goals, 123.3 total xG.Career goals and xG by season, 15 seasons from 2009-10 to 2022-23, 411 total goals, 123.3 total xG.012243648101112131415161718192021222223

Season-by-season

SeasonClubLeagueGoalsAssists
2009-10Real MadridLa Liga292,461267——
2010-11Real MadridLa Liga342,914409——
2011-12Real MadridLa Liga383,3504612——
2012-13Real MadridLa Liga342,7163410——
2013-14Real MadridLa Liga302,534319——
2014-15Real MadridLa Liga353,1004816——
2015-16Real MadridLa Liga363,183359——
2016-17Real MadridLa Liga292,539256——
2017-18Real MadridLa Liga272,28526525.25.0
2018-19JuventusSerie A312,68821822.24.6
2019-20JuventusSerie A332,91731528.66.4
2020-21JuventusSerie A332,80229227.73.8
2021-22JuventusSerie A131000.10.1
2021-22Manchester UtdPremier League302,45618317.93.2
2022-23Manchester UtdPremier League9435101.60.4
FBref data ≤ 2022-23. Rows tagged wiki are top-scorer entries from Wikipedia and only carry goals.
▸How to read this table— 6 columns explained
MP
Matches played in that season (start or sub counts as one).
Mins
Total minutes on the pitch — better signal for workload than MP alone.
Goals
Goals scored (penalties included).
Assists
Passes that directly led to a goal (FBref attribution).
xG
Expected goals — per-shot quality scored 0–1 by distance / angle / pressure, summed across the season.
xAG
Expected assisted goals — the xG of shots created by this player's passes, summed.
FBref data ends 2022-23; current-season rows tagged wiki come from Wikipedia top-scorer tables and carry only goals.

Rest of the Portugal squad