What will be Ronaldo’s future after Portugal’s defeat?
Kathmandu. Portugal suffered a 1-0 defeat against the African team Morocco in the quarter-finals of the World Cup on Saturday.
After the team’s defeat, the question of what turn the Portuguese star Ronaldo’s career will take has started to arise. The 37-year-old Ronaldo’s team has not won the World Cup so far. Portugal’s World Cup journey has ended for this time with Morocco’s excellent performance at the Al Thuma Stadium.
Morocco’s G was celebrated not only by Moroccan players and in the Al Thuma stadium, but by the entire African and Arab nations. In the middle of this celebration, the Portuguese captain, Ronaldo, put his hands on his face and cried. He turned his gaze to the audience in the stadium and left the field alone.
There were photojournalists who captured the joy of Morocco on the field, but more photojournalists ran to capture the emotions of Ronaldo. Ronaldo immediately left the field and went to the dressing room. He ran away from cameras, journalists and FIFA staff.
Even though Ronaldo’s dream of winning this World Cup was incomplete, it ended with a good world record in his name. He became the only player to score in five different editions of the World Cup. In this sense, this World Cup will be a bittersweet experience for him.
Ronaldo is on the list of top scorers with 118 goals in 196 international matches. He has won the Ballon d’Or five times. He has won the European Golden Boot four times and the league title seven times.
Last October, he completed 700 career goals while staying at Manchester United. It is a great achievement for him who started his playing career with Real Madrid in 2003.
The 2022 World Cup was a version of opposite and unexpected results for the giant nation. Talking about Portugal, captain Ronaldo was benched for the last 16 match due to his reaction after the loss against South Korea. Then the news came out that he threatened to take Portugal out of the race for the World Cup. But then the Portuguese coach and the team clarified about it and said that there was nothing like that.
Even in the match against Morocco on Saturday, he was not the first choice. Portuguese coach Fernandez Santosh kept him on the bench for strategic reasons.
Santosh said that he has no regrets about keeping captain Ronaldo on the bench. “Ronaldo is an excellent player. We fielded him when we needed him”, Santosh said.
Ronaldo entered the field in the 51st minute. Pepe, the experienced defender who took over the captaincy at the beginning of the game, gave him an arm band. After that the game became very exciting. Ronaldo did not score a single goal in the game and left the field waving to the small number of Portuguese supporters.
In the 42nd minute, the header goal scored by Youssef N Nesri of Morocco became the basis of Morocco’s victory.
After losing to Atlas Lions, Ronaldo went straight to the dressing room. His teammates stood on the field despite the defeat to thank the supporters.
Portugal defeated Ghana. They beat Uruguay in the group stage and lost 2-1 to South Korea. In the 2006 World Cup held in Germany, Portugal, which was in fourth place, could not advance from the last 16.
With Qatar out of the World Cup, Ronaldo’s club football future is also in doubt.
He left Manchester United a few days before the start of the tournament. He criticized coach Enrique ten Haag at the club. In the last ten years, Ronaldo has been the victim of a lot of criticism off and on the field. Now he may have to go through some difficult stages in his career.