Predicting when Cristiano Ronaldo will retire from football

Highlights

• Cristiano Ronaldo, his his late 30s, shows no signs of slowing down in the Saudi Pro League, scoring more goals than anyone else in 2023.
• Ronaldo has expressed that he will keep playing until his legs say otherwise, and he aims to reach 250 international caps and possibly play in the 2026 World Cup.
• Ronaldo could retire at the age of 41, potentially after playing in the 2026 World Cup, and may pursue ownership of a football club or even acting in movies.

When all is said and done, Cristiano Ronaldo will be remembered as one of the greatest footballers of all time. Don’t worry about comparing him to greats such as Lionel Messi, Deigo Maradona, Pele, Franz Beckenbauer, Johan Cruyff and all the other legends – just trust that he ranks up there with the very best of them.

At 38 years of age, and turning 39 on 5 February, it remains unclear just how much longer we will get to watch the Portuguese icon play the beautiful game. He left Manchester United, and consequently European football, in December of 2022 but has shown no signs of slowing down in the Saudi Pro League.

In 2023, he actually scored more goals than anyone else. Indeed, he bagged 44 for Al-Nassr and a further 10 for Portugal. This total of 54 strikes in the calendar year was two more than Harry Kane, who was the second-most prolific footballer over the same period.

Still, as he approaches his 40s, the big question is starting to loom large on the horizon: when will Ronaldo retire? Well, looking at his quotes from the past, as well as his career achievements and ambitions, GIVEMESPORT has written up all the information you will need to know about his retirement. What’s more, we’ve also come up with a prediction for Ronaldo’s retirement age and date.

What Ronaldo has said about retiring

“10 more years”

While attending the Globe Soccer Awards in early 2024 – where he picked up three accolades – Ronaldo was in good spirits about his future, joking that he could still play for quite some time yet. He told the press:

“At the moment when I finish I don’t know to be honest. Of course it will be soon. By soon I mean 10 years more. I’m joking! I don’t know, let’s see.”

He also sounded pretty defiant on the topic when talking about it in September 2023. With Ronaldo now playing in the Saudi Pro League, it’s been suggested that he’s as good as “finished”. Taking umbrage with this, the veteran forward said:

“They say Ronaldo is finished… But it’s not true. I’ll keep playing until my legs say: Cristiano, I’m finished. “I still have a lot. I still like football and scoring goals. I still like to win. They say I’m finished, but I keep showing that it’s not true.”

Ronaldo’s girlfriend on retirement

Georgina Rodriguez claims “maybe two” years

Ronaldo’s long-term girlfriend and partner Georgina Rodriguez is a model and was spotted at Paris Fashion Week in early 2024. At the event she wore an old Manchester United kit, which had been transformed into a long, flowing red dress, with Ronaldo’s name and number on the front.

While paying homage to her partner, the 30-year-old also appeared to drop a big hint about when he could retire. In footage circulated on social media, she said: “Cristiano one more year, then it’s over. Maybe two, I don’t know.”

International retirement

Will likely play at Euro 2024

Despite his age, Ronaldo continues to be a key man for Portugal. In fact, he scored 10 goals in qualification for this summer’s Euro 2024 tournament – only bettered by Romelu Lukaku (14) of Belgium.

Having won Euro 2016, as well as the UEFA Nations League of 2018/19, the 38-year-old has enjoyed a decent level of success for his country but has never won the World Cup. After being dropped from the starting lineup at Qatar 2022, he later revealed that he nearly retired from international football, saying: “We thought, we reflected, me and my family, but then we came to the conclusion that, despite the difficulties, we cannot throw in the towel.”

Ronaldo has since earned his place back in the team under new boss Roberto Martinez and will likely be a regular at Euro 2024 this summer in Germany. In 2023, he became the first-ever male player to make 200 appearances at international level and has stated his ambition to reach 250 caps, which could mean he is still playing when the 2026 World Cup comes around.

At this stage, he would be 41 years old. While this is pretty old, it’s still younger than Roger Milla, the oldest outfield play to play at the World Cup – doing so in 1994 aged 42 years 39 days. While Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary holds the record at 45 years 161 days.

Retirement date prediction

Aged 41 after 2026 World Cup

It’s likely that Ronaldo will still have to be playing at club level if he wants to be picked for the 2026 World Cup. So the prediction at GIVEMESPORT is that he will continue with his career in the Saudi Pro League until that year.

After the 2025/26 domestic season comes to an end, he will head to the United States, Mexico, and Canada to play in the tournament with Portugal. This will be the final chance he has to win the most illustrious and elusive trophy.

Regardless of whether he wins the World Cup or not, now into his 40s, this will be the right time to bow out. He would have achieved essentially everything on offer to him in European football, as well as had plenty of time to add to his trophy cabinet in the Middle East, and with the next World Cup then four years away, this would be the right moment for Ronaldo to retire.

Of course, he could hang up his boots a lot earlier if he picks up a serious injury, or if he can longer get in the Portugal squad. But this feels like a realistically ambitious date to aim for.

Ronaldo plans after retirement

The most obvious path for footballers after retirement is into coaching. Greats such as Pep Guardiola, Carlo Ancelotti, and Giovanni Trapattoni all had great playing careers before going on to achieve even greater things as managers. But Ronaldo has previously stated that he probably doesn’t intend to tread this well-trodden path.

In 2019, he told DAZN Italy (via Goal): “Right now, I’m not interested in becoming a coach, but maybe one day I will be bored and I will feel like it Never say never. If I became a coach, I would be a motivator, the coach must pass on his passion and talent to the team. For example, I like to have fun, dribble, shoot, score goals, I should pass this on to the team, as a motivator.”

An alternative idea, that certainly is more interesting than the previous option, is to go into the world of acting. He mooted the idea himself, once telling the press: “One of the things that I seek to challenge myself in, for example, is acting in a movie. I hope I live more than 50 years to learn new things and face different challenges and try to find solutions for them.”

More realistically, Ronaldo has previously spoken about his desire to a own football club. In June 2023, he told reporters (via ESPN): “I don’t rule out becoming a club owner. It’s something I thought about a few years back. I probably would like to own a [football] club. I’m at the end of my career, two to three years maximum.”

Ronaldo net worth

£500m in the bank

Fortunately, Ronaldo has made so much money over the course of his career, that he can likely fund any post-retirement career and business plans he likes. Forbes named him the highest-paid athlete of 2023 and he has an estimated net worth of around £500m.

Beyond the reported £173m per year he currently earns at Al-Nassr, his lifetime contract with Nike, and business ventures – such as his hotels which operate under the name Pestana CR7 – will keep his bank account looking healthy long after Ronaldo retires.

What’s more, the 38-year-old and his partner Georgina Rodriguez, were named the second-richest couple in world football in 2023. They ranked behind only David and Victoria Beckham, so their wealth in retirement should not be an issue.

Ronaldo career achievements

Five-time Ballon d’Or winner

The reason Ronaldo is so rich is largely because he’s had such a successful playing career. It all started with Sporting Lisbon in 2002 when he emerged as a youngster before heading to Manchester United. He won the Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, and FA Cup in England and then achieved even greater success in Spain with Real Madrid.

Having long-established himself as one of the greatest goalscorers on the planet – while also winning Euro 2016 with Portugal – the forward then moved to Juventus. In Italy, he won Serie A and the Supercoppa Italiana twice as well as the Coppa Italia. He then returned to Man Utd before moving to Al-Nassr where he became Arab Club Champions Cup in 2023.

In the history of football, only Messi has won more than Ronaldo’s 32 individual trophies. The Portugal star is a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, while he has also won accolades such as FIFA World Player of the Year, UEFA Men’s Player of the Year, The Best FIFA Men’s Player, Portuguese Player of the Year, European Golden Shoe and many other honours.