Cristiano Ronaldo appears to be like set to increase his profession nicely into his forties, with a brand new contract at Saudi Professional League membership Al Nassr considered shut.
Ronaldo celebrated his fortieth birthday in February and has continued to attain targets at a prolific charge within the early weeks of his fifth decade on planet earth. It is 32 in 35 appearances throughout all competitions for the Portugal icon, together with six in his final 4 Saudi Professional League video games alone.
The previous Manchester United, Actual Madrid and Juventus star has undeniably benefitted from leaving prime degree European leagues for a much less intense and decrease total high quality competitors – evident in his numbers after posting a 50-goal season in 2023/24 for the primary time in eight years.
However that form of output at his age, lengthy after {most professional} footballers have known as it a day, remains to be extraordinarily admirable all the identical.
Ronaldo’s Al Nassr contract is up on the finish of the season, which had introduced hypothesis about what would possibly come subsequent for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner. However Marca writes {that a} new one-year deal, which incorporates the choice of a second for the participant, is “about to be signed”. With it, an extension of his already world-leading wages of €200m per season.
That contract might take Ronaldo to the tip of 2026/27 with Al Nassr, who’re nonetheless looking for a primary league title since 2019 after falling brief once more this season. By then, Ronaldo can have turned 42, however there’s each likelihood that he might even have reached 1,000 profession targets.
As of this second, Ronaldo has scored 933 throughout his 5 skilled golf equipment and Portugal – getting his first as a 17-year-old with Sporting CP in 2002. It might take one other 67 to hit the four-figure milestone in aggressive senior soccer, one thing the late Pele by no means achieved, which might be eminently attainable at his present charge of discovering the online.
With retirement not on the horizon any time quickly, Ronaldo might additionally get to the 2026 World Cup in North America aged 41. That may make him the second oldest outfield participant in World Cup historical past, behind solely Roger Milla, who was 42 on the 1994 match.
Nevertheless, simply what sort of affect Ronaldo might have at that degree stays to be seen. His worldwide performances exterior of dealing with weaker European groups in qualifying and Nations League video games have been disappointing, with poor tournaments in each 2022 and 2024.
READ THE LATEST NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS AND MATCH REACTION
