Cristiano Ronaldo Considers Retirement After Remarkable Career
Cristiano Ronaldo is finally talking about the end.
After two and a half decades spent re-writing football’s record book, the 41-year-old has suggested this season could be his last as a professional, drawing a line under one of the most relentless careers the sport has ever seen.
“This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy,” he told Vogue, speaking shortly after marrying Georgina Rodríguez on Tuesday. It was a rare admission from a player who has built his image on defying time, not acknowledging it.
A giant contemplating the exit
Ronaldo’s honours list has long since crossed into absurd territory: five Ballon d’Or awards, major trophies across England, Spain and Italy, and a catalogue of records that made his name synonymous with goals and glory.
Yet his focus now is shifting. He spoke of “looking forward to spending more time with the family,” explaining that life after football is already carefully planned. “I have so many things to keep me busy that to tell you just one thing is hard,” he said. “Because football could leave a big hole, you have to fill your time in various ways, not just one.”
The words carried the weight of someone who knows exactly what he is walking away from – and what he refuses to lose himself to once it is gone.
He talked about simple pleasures that have waited patiently in the shadow of his career: travelling more, watching and playing padel, and enjoying the rewards of a life built on obsession. “And also have more fun, travel more, watch and play padel, which I really like, and continue to enjoy what I’ve earned – what we’ve earned. Because, after all, it’s been 25 years with a lot of sacrifice.”
Chasing 1,000
Even as he speaks of the end, there is one target still hanging in the air.
Ronaldo has scored 976 goals for club and country, an astonishing figure amassed in the colours of Sporting, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus, Portugal and now Al-Nassr. For years he has openly set his sights on 1,000 career goals, a number that once sounded like fantasy but now sits within reach.
One more year in Saudi Arabia might be enough to get him there.
He remains under contract at Al-Nassr for another season, a deal that gives him a clear runway to that milestone. The Saudi Pro League may no longer be the sharpest edge of the game, but it is the stage on which he can still score, still chase, still add to a legacy that already dwarfs almost every forward who has played the sport.
A legend in his twilight
Ronaldo stepped onto the World Cup stage for a sixth time this summer, scoring again for Portugal and setting an all-time record in the process. Yet the player who once bent entire tournaments to his will is now reduced, a shadow of the phenomenon who terrorised defences in his peak years at Real Madrid.
That doesn’t erase what came before. It simply underlines the scale of the journey. From explosive winger to ruthless penalty-box predator, from hungry prospect to global icon, he has lived out every possible version of a superstar’s career.
Now he is talking about what comes after. About filling the “big hole” that football will leave. About family, travel, padel, and finally enjoying what those 25 years of sacrifice have built.
If this really is his last season, one question will follow him around every stadium he visits with Al-Nassr: will he walk away with 1,000 goals to his name, or leave the game just short of the number that has driven his final act?
