Heading into his last men's World Cup for Portugal, Cristiano Ronaldo had hoped to make a lasting imprint for his country. This tournament is, after all, his last chance at winning the one major trophy that has eluded him for his entire career. The problem for Ronaldo and Portugal in this situation is that he knows it's his last chance at winning the big one. (And let's just say that an older Ronaldo is certainly no older Messi.)
So much so that, like much of his international career, Ronaldo is inevitably going to insert himself into promising Portuguese sequences that didn't require his intervention out of selfishness. Why? Because he still clearly doesn't trust his teammates as much as he should.
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We saw a prime example of this during Portugal's World Cup opener against the Democratic Republic of the Congo on Wednesday. Portugal struggled to generate as much offense as expected in an eventual 1-1 draw. But it did have a prime (wasted) scoring opportunity in the latter stages of the second half. A pass was delivered perfectly over the middle of the goalbox to attacking midfielder Bruno Fernandes, who, as a skilled player in his own right, likely would've scored with an easy touch shot.
There was one problem: Ronaldo jumped in front of Fernandes to intercept the pass so he could take a terrible, rushed shot of his own that ... went wide right of the goal.
Fernandes' frustrated reaction to Ronaldo's blunder says it all:
Ronaldo gets a chance at goal for Portugal 🇵🇹 pic.twitter.com/0YU37MmQHU
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) June 17, 2026
Man, if there's another play that encapsulates the extent to which a 41-year-old, way-past-his-prime Ronaldo holds Portugal back on the biggest stages, I haven't seen it.
What's worse is that this wasn't the only mistake Ronaldo made in the match. Far from it. He had zero goals, zero assists, zero shots on target, zero chances created, zero dribbles, zero ground duels won, and zero fouls won. He mostly did nothing but run back and forth while inserting himself into plays at the worst possible times. For all intents and purposes, one of the greatest players ever really did "run cardio" for 90 minutes in the first match of his last World Cup ever.
The good news for Portugal and Ronaldo is that they still earned a point from this match and remain in a favorable group. Barring outright catastrophe, they will likely advance to the knockout rounds of this World Cup. The bad news for Portugal and Ronaldo is that, one match in, it's already evident he can't really be trusted moving forward while still taking up so much oxygen.
This article originally appeared on For The Win: Cristiano Ronaldo stealing pass for Portugal teammate is harmfully on brand