{"id":27055,"date":"2025-11-11T15:04:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:04:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=27055"},"modified":"2025-11-11T15:04:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T15:04:11","slug":"ronaldo-says-2026-world-cup-definitely-his-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/?p=27055","title":{"rendered":"Ronaldo says 2026 World Cup &#8216;definitely&#8217; his last"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday said that the FIFA World Cup 2026 would be his last as he winds down one of the all-time great careers.<\/p>\n<p>The 40-year-old forward, with more than 950 club and international goals, also said he would retire from football in \u201cone or two years\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefinitely, yes,\u201d he told a Saudi forum by video link, when asked if 2026 would be his final World Cup. \u201cI\u2019m gonna be 41 years old and I think it will be the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo, who began a lucrative stint at Saudi Arabia\u2019s Al Nassr in 2023, also elaborated on comments last week when he said he would retire \u201csoon\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s be honest, when I mean soon, it\u2019s probably one or two years, I\u2019ll still be at the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner is hoping to play at a sixth World Cup next year. He came closest to lifting the trophy on debut in 2006, when Portugal lost to France in the semi-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Portugal have yet to qualify for the 2026 tournament in the USA, Canada and Mexico, but can secure their spot if they beat Ireland on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, Ronaldo became the top goalscorer in World Cup qualifying history when he netted twice against Hungary to reach 41 goals, overtaking retired Guatemalan international Carlos Ruiz\u2019s 39.<\/p>\n<p>The former Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus forward is also the all-time leading international goalscorer with 143 strikes.<\/p>\n<p>During an interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored last week, Ronaldo opened up further about the realities of his looming retirement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt will be difficult? Yes. Probably will cry, yes. I\u2019m an open person. It will be very, very difficult, yes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo joined Al Nassr after leaving Manchester United for a second time in late 2022, a move that heralded an influx of late-career stars to the oil-rich kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>Ronaldo initially signed for 200 million euros a year, according to a source close to Al Nassr at the time, and inked a two-year contract extension in June.<\/p>\n<p>Last month, he was named by Bloomberg as the sport\u2019s first billionaire, and topped the Forbes list of highest-paid footballers for the sixth time in a decade.<\/p>\n<p>With on-and off-field earnings of an estimated $280 million, Ronaldo will earn more than double that of second-placed rival Lionel Messi during the upcoming season, according to Forbes.<\/p>\n<p>Saudi Arabia, which is spending big on sports and entertainment as part of its economic diversification plan, was named as host of the 2034 World Cup last December.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday said that the FIFA World Cup 2026 would be his last as he winds down one of the all-time great careers. The 40-year-old forward, with more than 950 club and international goals, also said he would retire from football in \u201cone or two years\u201d. \u201cDefinitely, yes,\u201d he told a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27055\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipp-news.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}