Cristiano Ronaldo, 40, made history once again in the just-ended UEFA Nations League as the oldest ever player to have played in the history of the competition.
Ronaldo and his Portugal teammates made a tremendous statement in the history of football by winning the Nations League, beating Spain 5-3 on penalties.
Despite the Spanish national team taking the lead twice in the game through Martin Zubimendi and Mikel Oyarzabal, Portugal came back to level the scoreline through Nuno Mendes and Cristiano Ronaldo and managed to maintain the scoreline throughout the 90 minutes of extra time.
Ronaldo, at 40 and 203 days, was recognized as the oldest player to have featured in the Nations League. A record that was held by Luka Modric and Jesus Navas, who were both 37 years and 282 and 209 days old, respectively.
The final, which happened in Allianz Arena, was important to both sides but was very important to Portugal and Ronaldo as he edges closer to his retirement.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s History as a Football Player
Cristiano Ronaldo’s first club was Clube Desportivo Nacional of Madeira, and he was later on transferred to the Sporting Club De Portugal (Sporting Lisbon) youth team. He played a series of matches in their youth team and was later promoted to the senior team at the age of 17 in 2002.
He played fantastically well on the sporting team both in Europe and in the domestic league. He played 31 matches in all competitions and scored 5 goals. His skill set was unmatched and caught the eye of most big European teams.
In a match against Manchester United, his abilities (dribbling, shooting, passing, etc.) were excellent even at that tender age and caught the eye of Sir Alex Ferguson, who was the manager of Manchester United.
Soon thereafter, Manchester United signed him for 12 million pounds from Sporting Lisbon when he turned 18 years old in 2003.
At Manchester United, that is where he undoubtedly became one of the best attackers in the world of football. He made 292 appearances, scored 118 goals (he played 19,000 minutes and had 0.56 goals per game), and made 42 assists.
During his time at United, Ronaldo won 3 Premier League titles, 1 FA Cup, and 1 Champions League. Individually, he won the Ballon d’Or, FIFA World Player of the Year, PFA Young Player of the Year, Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year (Man Utd Player of the Year) (2003-04, 2006-07, 2007-08), Barclays Player of the Year 2 times (2004, 2005), and a lot more.
In 2009, Cristiano Ronaldo moved from Manchester United to Real Madrid for a record-breaking fee of 80 million pounds, and that is where he cemented his position as one of the all-time best players in the history of football.
He played nine seasons at Real Madrid, breaking and setting a lot of impressive records, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer with 450 goals.
Ronaldo won 4 European Cups, 3 Club World Cups, 3 UEFA Super Cups, 2 league titles, 2 Copa del Rey, and 2 Spanish Cups. His standout performance with Real Madrid has earned him a legendary status in the history of the club.
He won a lot of individual awards at the club, including 4 Ballon d’Ors, 3 European Golden Shoes, 7 Trofeo Alfredo Di Stefano, and a lot more awards.
In 2018, he made a surprising move to Juventus and made history by becoming the first player to reach 100 goals with fewer matches and also won the Serie A 2 times (2018-2019). He also became the first player to win the Serie A MVP award consecutively.
From Juventus, he made the iconic return to his former club, Manchester United, where he started his journey to greatness. He did well in his first season, scoring 24 in 38 appearances despite United’s poor form.
The following year, Manchester United appointed Erik ten Hag as their new manager and unfortunately had some misunderstandings with Ronaldo, which saw his exit from his boyhood club, and he joined Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League as a free agent.
Although Ronaldo hasn’t won any specific trophy in the Saudi Pro League, he has been credited for bringing more attention to the league and his team, Al Nassr. He helped Al Nassr finish second in the 2022-2023 SPL and has made a lot of impact on the team.
