{"id":30,"date":"2026-07-05T23:26:56","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T20:26:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/?p=30"},"modified":"2026-07-06T08:20:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T05:20:47","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-messi-ile-olan-rekabeti-hakkinda-konustu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/2026\/07\/05\/cristiano-ronaldo-messi-ile-olan-rekabeti-hakkinda-konustu\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo thanks detractors, confirms final World Cup: \u2018From the biggest criticisms, we grow the most\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

ARLINGTON \u2014 Cristiano Ronaldo has heard the eulogies for his career. On the eve of Portugal\u2019s World Cup round-of-16 meeting with Spain, the 41-year-old forward made clear he intends to keep needling the people writing them, while confirming this will be his last time on soccer\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Facing reporters ahead of Monday\u2019s knockout tie at AT&T Stadium, Ronaldo faced the same questions that have followed him at this World Cup: about his critics and whether this is his last one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than deflect the recurring lines of questioning, he leaned into them, ribbing the room and poking some fun at the detractors who have trailed him for two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor 23 years you (critics) have been trying to kill me, but you have already realized that it\u2019s not worth it,\u201d he said Sunday, in response to a question about how he deals with his starting spot in Portugal\u2019s team being constantly questioned and criticized. Fox Sports commentator and former French national player Thierry Henry was scathing of Ronaldo\u2019s play after Portugal\u2019s opening draw with DR Congo, saying \u201cthe team needs to score, not you need to score.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Team captain Ronaldo added that the Portuguese are always on his side and that \u201call the rest is garbage and counts for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Portugal reached the last 16 by beating Croatia 2-1 on Thursday, with Ronaldo scoring a penalty (his first goal in a World Cup knockout match) before Gon\u00e7alo Ramos headed home a stoppage-time winner. The reward is a rematch with rival Spain, one of the tournament\u2019s favorites, on Monday afternoon in Dallas. For Ronaldo, playing his sixth and final World Cup, the target is the one prize still missing from his r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If one line of questioning visibly wore on him, it was the framing of the tournament as an ending. Reporters kept circling back to whether this is his last World Cup and to invitations to reflect on his career, and Ronaldo met the repetition with bemused, if thinning, patience before batting the premise away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI will finish, as I said a few years ago, when I want to, not when you want me to,\u201d he said of the talk of it being his final World Cup. The press, he noted with a trace of amusement, is \u201calways asking the \u2018last one\u2019 question,\u201d and at one point he quipped, with humor in his voice, \u201cYou guys don\u2019t want me to come again, huh? That\u2019s what you want. I get it, I heard you now.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asked later in the news conference about how he deals with the criticism, Ronaldo replied: \u201cTo answer your question: it\u2019s to enjoy it as much as possible, given it\u2019s the last World Cup \u2014 and it is<\/em> going to be the last World Cup. And to enjoy the day-to-day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was pressure, he wasn\u2019t showing it. Ronaldo was loose, quick with a smile and eager to draw a laugh from the gathered press. On the hardest part of playing at 41, Ronaldo deadpanned that it had nothing to do with football. \u201cThe most difficult thing is talking to you all, with some of you, the ones who don\u2019t like me, especially,\u201d he said. He bantered with reporters throughout, at one point beckoning a question from a journalist he said he knew didn\u2019t like him. \u201cI remember people\u2019s faces very well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ronaldo insisted that never winning a World Cup title would not change how he sees himself. \u201cI am not going to be more Cristiano for winning the World Cup, or be less Cristiano if I don\u2019t win the World Cup,\u201d he said. Win or lose on Monday, he added, \u201cI leave here with a clear conscience. Not 100 percent, but 1,000 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He went so far as to thank his detractors for their service. \u201cI learned, after 40 \u2013 and I hope to live another 40 years \u2013 that it is from the biggest criticisms that we grow the most as people,\u201d Ronaldo said. \u201cAnd I thank you guys for continuing to do that, because in a way I grow more and more.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the opponent, Ronaldo was more diplomatic. He called Spain a perennial contender with \u201cmany talents\u201d and praised their teenage star, the 18-year-old Lamine Yamal \u2014 23 years his junior. \u201cHe is a player with a lot of future,\u201d Ronaldo said, before advising him to get used to detractors \u201cas quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere are difficult moments, obviously, because we are all human,\u201d Ronaldo acknowledged. \u201cThere are days when you, too, (the press) don\u2019t feel like getting up and going to work. In football, since we are always under fire, sometimes it\u2019s harder. But it\u2019s part of the job.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ARLINGTON \u2014 Cristiano Ronaldo has heard the eulogies for his career. On the eve of Portugal\u2019s World Cup round-of-16 meeting with Spain, the 41-year-old forward made clear he intends to keep needling the people writing them, while confirming this will be his last time on soccer\u2019s biggest stage. Facing reporters ahead of Monday\u2019s knockout tie…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/34"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/anatolia.se\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}