History awaits: Cristiano Ronaldo prepares for a legacy-defining Euro 2024

As the world counts down the day before the end of what can only be described as a legendary career, Cristiano Ronaldo is starting his unprecedented sixth European Championship campaign. Since his name was included in Portugal’s squad for the 2004 tournament in his own backyard, the 39-year-old has yet to miss out a major tournament with his home nation.

Thanks to such longevity and inhuman consistency, the Portuguese star has racked up 207 international caps, by far the only male international footballer to surpass the two-century mark in terms of appearances for their senior national team. But, despite his age and time away from the limelight of European football, it is clear that Ronaldo is up for one last push at greatness.

Let’s begin with the most obvious of his uncountable records: his appearances. As of writing, Cristiano Ronaldo has made 25 appearances in the European Championship finals, the only player to have reached and breached twenty. But not only will one minute of his involvement on the pitch be record-extending, but it will also mark the sixth European Championship that the Starman has played in; the first to ever achieve such feat. Without that, he will be tied on five tournaments with former teammate Luka Modric.

Turning to his most marketable trait, goalscoring, the Portuguese talisman is already the all-time top scorer of the European Championship finals, qualifying and overall. In his 25 games in the finals, Ronaldo netted 14 times, five ahead of Michel Platini’s one-tournament tally in 1984.

For the sake of comparison, Ronaldo has scored as many goals in the final tournaments as Greece and Turkey and more than Poland.  On top of this, CR7 also has 41 goals from the qualifying stage (unsurprisingly another record), bringing his total up to 55 goals. 

But, to put things in an even wilder perspective, a recent article on the Guardian verifies that, should Ronaldo find his 15th goal in the days ahead, he will become only the third male footballer to score an international goal 20 years after his first. Currently, as of writing, the last player to score an international goal 20 years after netting his first was Zambian all-timer Kalusha Bwalya.

In 2004, as the player-manager of his home nation, Bwalya found the back of Liberia’s net in the 2006 World Cup Qualifiers, one month after the 20th anniversary of his first international goal against Uganda in 1984. To beat Bwalya’s record, Ronaldo will have to score an international goal after the Euro ends, suggesting that Portugal does well enough to convince its most decorated player to continue. For a chance to win big, head to M88 if you think Portugal will repeat its 2016 fairytale.

A goalscoring performance will also earn him the status as the competition’s oldest goal scorer, as he already surpassed Ivica Vastic’s age of 38 years 257 days before 2024 even began. Multiple goalscoring performances, however, might earn Ronaldo the far-more prestigious record of the first man to feature in the Team of the Tournament four times. Paolo Maldini.  and Laurant Blanc, each with three, are keeping him company, for now.

Reaching the final will bring him the most applause; while many illustrious figures have earned the chance to win the European Championship twice, only one fortunate German, Rainer Bonhof, has ever managed a third chance in 1980. If Portugal reaches the Euro 2024 final, Ronaldo has the chance to become not only the first player to play in three finals, but also the oldest.

All these fantastic numbers aside, it is not the reason why this article describes this upcoming campaign as ‘legacy-defining.’ The reason is that: Ronaldo can come out of this tournament with two drastically extreme legacies. 

On one hand, a decent performance (not necessarily a championship-winning one) will cement Ronaldo’s legacy as the greatest European footballer or even athlete of all time. If 39 years of age and a few seasons in the less-than-competitive Saudi Pro League fail to slow him down, then no other metric can be used to dilute his greatness and abilities.

On the other hand, a forgettable campaign marred by no goals or limited gameplay will completely destroy his legacy. That is despite his 900 career goals and five Ballon d’Ors. In this scenario, Ronaldo will be seen as just an arrogant old man who fails to realize when to quit. He will be seen the same way as history views Michael Ballack or even Ryan Giggs.

Concluding this article is far easier than concluding such a glamorous career. Cristiano Ronaldo can rest assured that, no matter what happens by 14 July, he will have done exactly what he promised to his dying father in 2005: becoming the greatest football player of his time.