Fernando Santos is confident that Cristiano Ronaldo will play until he is 40 years old at the highest level.
We are all afraid of the day Cristiano Ronaldo decides to hang up his boots but some believe he will play until he is 40. A good example to follow is Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Swedish striker keeps performing at the highest level and he is already pushing 39. In fact, Ibra even suffered a career-threatening injury on his knee and he still returned to keep playing at the highest level.
Football for veterans is reserved for just a few footballers in history, but we believe that Cristiano has a gift that will allow him to get pretty far. The player himself has stated in the past that he is willing to keep playing until he is 40 years old, which would be nothing short of incredible. It most certainly won’t be surprising, but we’ll still be pleased to see it happen.
The people surrounding him are convinced this is a real possibility as they’ve also stated in the past. But there is one person who knows him quite well and thinks this is more than possible for Ronaldo.
This happened during an interview with TVI24 that Diario AS reported. The Portugal manager has been part of Cristiano’s most successful periods with his national team. Together, they won the UEFA Euro 2016 and the UEFA Nations League and they are going for more.
Santos already knows how impressive Cristiano Ronaldo’s physique truly is but reaching 40 at the highest level is a difficult task. Regardless, Santos will be right there to see it happen.
“Cristiano is ready to play until he is 40 years old, but I don’t know if it will happen. He can feel at any moment that he doesn’t have the endurance anymore.
“He is not the type of player who would allow himself to play at a lower level, he’ll step out of the game himself before that happens.
“When he feels he can’t be Ronaldo anymore, he is not willing to be a ‘Ronaldinho’. I use quotation marks so we don’t confuse him with the Brazilian Ronaldinho.”
