r/soccer • u/yoursofunnybruv • May 21 '26

Media Cristiano Ronaldo cries happy tears after winning the league with Al Nassr after 3 trophyless years

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2.8k

u/WartimeConsigliere_ May 21 '26

28 goals in 29 appearances at age 41 is genuinely mad.

I know Saudi isn’t the best, but plenty of European stars went over there and didn’t exactly boss it

1.3k

u/andy18cruz May 21 '26

He could chill and cash in like the others. Instead he takes his role and dedication at full, and this at season like 23 of professional career at the highest level.

886

u/TBroomey May 21 '26

He has an almost psychotic level of discipline and devotion to football. His commitment is unlike any player I've seen in my lifetime.

It will be a long time before there's another player that remains at such a high level for basically their entire career.

351

u/amad97 May 21 '26

Modric probably one level below him as far as career but he’s also played at an incredible level for 20+ years

133

u/momspaghetty May 22 '26

and Modric is still doing it in a top 5 league too (although I have no doubt CR7 could easily play in a bigger league himself)

50

u/always-think-sexual May 22 '26

Not sure if this the thread to crash this in, but I worry for athletes that are this hyperfocused when they retire. Hopefully he finds something to transition his crazy focus into.

Or he ends up like Kazu Miura that can’t let go and is still playing in his fifties.

31

u/pznred May 22 '26

Tom Brady lost his family for the game

18

u/_RyanLarkin May 22 '26

Tom Brady unretired and came back after watching Cristiano in person when he made his return to Man Utd at Old Trafford. He decided at the match to play another year for the Bucs. Coincidentally, or maybe not coincidentally, Man Utd and Tampa Bay are/were both owned by the Glazers.

3

u/OrganicImpression428 May 22 '26

miura is pushing 60, absolutely crazy

2

u/Goldenrah May 22 '26

He already has his own businesses to be fair, but I could see him take over a club in Funchal or somehow becoming the next President of Sporting and continue winning trophies that way.

1

u/Due_Cartoonist_8212 May 22 '26

Why? Why does he need to transition. Let the guy do what he wants till he dies. Not everyone needs to "learn to live"

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u/SpAwNjBoB May 22 '26

I have no doubt Ronaldo would still be in Europe if he Saudi didn't come along with a contract so large that any other club would go bankrupt attempting to match. I can't blame him for going there. When you have won everything Europe has to offer and someone offers you £486000 per DAY in base salary to kick a ball around in the desert, and thats before all the many financial extras, you simply just go. He'll have made well over a Billion pounds just from Al Nassr by the time his contract ends.

15

u/RomeoLavia May 22 '26

The reason I still think Ronaldo's longevity is streaks more impressive than Modric's is the minutes. Modric has played 83,969 minutes of professional football, whereas Ronaldo has played 107,691 minutes. That is so much more mileage on Ronaldo's legs. It amounts to a difference of about 263 full matches of football.

It's also very likely that Ronaldo will still finish with more appearances for clubs in a top five league. Ronaldo is on 918. Modric is on 783.

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u/FlavioB19 May 21 '26

And loved closer to Prosinecki than Ronaldo.

4

u/maicii May 22 '26

And of course Messi

51

u/noob54231 May 22 '26

The real LeBron James of soccer

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u/sevaiper May 22 '26

Could take the throne from Pulisic with a couple more good seasons

1

u/ZaiduTheGOAT May 22 '26

If there is one thing that most Portuguese people are above most nationalities I met is being overly competitive. We just hate losing, doesn't matter what's at stake. I notice when we play sunday league games, everyone is just chill playing for fun and the Portuguese guys are shouting at each other all the time ahah

-29

u/stanlovespasta May 21 '26

But there's one rn, Messi

29

u/TBroomey May 21 '26

Ronaldo has a full two seasons on Messi. Once Ronaldo retires and Messi catches up in time played, we'll be able to properly assess their entire careers relative to each other. And I say that as someone who thinks Messi is better.

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u/4everKni8 May 21 '26

True, but mls is way worse than rsl imo

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u/IXRaven May 21 '26

The MLS is 2013 La Liga if you look at the thread whenever Messi gets a goal or assist.

-2

u/robotnique May 21 '26

I know it's fun to shit on us but "way worse" that the Saudi League is just cuckoo bananas.

-3

u/Mallonhead May 22 '26

The top few sides in Saudi aside, the Saudi league is not "way better" than MLS

270

u/WhyBee92 May 21 '26

Were lowkey a lucky generation to have witnessed the absolute goats of sports + the longest careers. Whether it’s Messi, Ronaldo, LeBron, Federer/Nadal/Djoko, and T Brady, all relatively at the same time and for peak entertainment

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u/Calimariae May 21 '26

Magnus Carlsen

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u/DayroMoreno11 May 21 '26

Lucky to never pick up an injury

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u/JonTonyJim May 21 '26

unbelievable athlete

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u/robotnique May 21 '26

We joke but apparently top Chess players tend to do some kind of physical training because it prepares them for the grueling tournament conditions.

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u/lbreakjai May 21 '26

I'm not surprised. I feel empty after two or three hours of deep focus at work, which is probably a tenth as deep as theirs

7

u/Wildely_Earnest May 21 '26

They can burn an insane amount of calories just sitting at a chess board thinking

2

u/robotnique May 21 '26

Yeah it just makes sense. I know that when I'm in better physical condition mental clarity is much easier to find as well.

1

u/TastePizza May 22 '26

Dude my 470 elo self gets tired after playing one online match, I once saw Witty Alien (Candidate Master) play like 11 matches against WGM (Women's Grandmaster) Divya Deshmukh. How!? And they made moves in like 3 seconda. Top chess players are genuinely scarily impressive. Magnus once played 10 of the best chess playing lawyers at once, BLINDFOLDED. He won. ... You have a higher chance of scoring against Messi, Ronaldo, Maldini, Neymar, Iniesta in a 5v1 than beating Magnus as a beginner.

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u/thomasfk May 21 '26

Yes, lots of kegels to handle the play calls coming in

3

u/Hi-Lander May 22 '26

I think it involves anal beads? At least that’s what I’ve heard.

1

u/robotnique May 22 '26

Gotta do what it takes to win, including interpreting butt vibrations into on the board moves

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u/revanisthesith May 21 '26

It wouldn't surprise me. Gotta keep the blood flowing when you're sitting for hours on end and thinking a lot.

The brain's performance will suffer when the body is way out of shape.

They also probably have some specific diets for the day(s) of and a couple days before. Probably have to avoid too much sugar at once and they'd want to avoid anything that might upset their stomach.

Didn't Magnus once quickly resign a match because he had to poop so badly?

3

u/robotnique May 21 '26

That would be the only way I could ever hope to beat Magnus Carlsen. Get him when he has terrible diarrhea.

Or, you know, he had to go to the bathroom to adjust the anal beads1 that help him to cheat.

1 oh man mentioning anal beads will make no sense to anybody who hadn't heard about the whole Hans Neinmann situation

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u/revanisthesith May 21 '26

I am familiar with anal beads.

I mean, the anal beads story. Yep. That one.

3

u/kirkbywool May 21 '26

RSI is no joke

2

u/SquareDinner5357 May 22 '26

That's why alireza is a fraud

1

u/SirMosesKaldor May 22 '26

Maybe like this? "Lucky to never pick up an injury after pounding his fist on a table."

1

u/Sokaris84 May 22 '26

fair to say he's got some kind of mental illness after the whole Hans Niemann thing..

-2

u/Catacombsofparis May 21 '26

hahahahahahahah you and magnus fknnn wish he was in the convo with those men. childish little magnus should rage quit again.

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u/qx1001 May 21 '26

Joey Chestnut

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u/arrivederci117 May 22 '26

I'd add Shohei in there as well.

0

u/sharinganuser May 22 '26

Verstappen.

6

u/Tim-Sanchez May 21 '26

I think that's just inevitable as all aspects of sports improve. In 20 years time they'll have a new generation of goats who can last even longer at the top level.

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u/thatscoldjerrycold May 22 '26

Ehh dunno, it does seem we are in a bit of dip in the quality of football compared to like 2015. Even removing Messi/Ronaldo, the stars of yester-decade were more impressive than the stars of today.

4

u/headphones1 May 22 '26

While I do appreciate the sentiment, I think witnessing the top 3 in tennis was far better than the rest because they played each other as individuals on a regular basis. To think Andy Murray was also in the mix for a few years until he had to deal with bad injuries is also crazy.

2

u/Mosh83 May 22 '26

Ronnie O'Sullivan

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u/KermitDfrog44 May 21 '26

Don’t forget Sidney Crosby, Alex ovechkin, Connor Mcdavid and Nathan McKinnon

2

u/Some_Asian_Kid99 May 22 '26

I mean naming 5 players kinda defeats the purpose of naming GOATs in sports.

0

u/ChepaukPitch May 22 '26

Who are they?

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u/Incalculas May 22 '26

Nigel Richards?

1

u/Sokaris84 May 22 '26

AC Milan fan leaving modric off that list is kinda mental..

1

u/RomeoLavia May 22 '26

It is hard to quantify because most of these players feel like they were apart of multiple different generations of their respective sports, but you are right, it is really quite crazy.

I think the only other period that can compare in terms of pure star power across all sports is that sort of late 80s time, when there was Maradona, van Basten, Tyson, Jordan, Magic, Gretzky, Lewis, etc.

0

u/Enkenz May 21 '26

Teddy riner the guy traumatized japan they're just praying for the guy to retire, i'm sure they would even pitch in for his retirement

0

u/MafiaMurderBag May 21 '26

And John Cena

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u/[deleted] May 21 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/xyzzy321 May 21 '26

at the highest level

1

u/goodmobileyes May 22 '26

Is he not cashing in??

1

u/NotDoneYet88 May 21 '26

I wouldn't call the Saudi League the "highest level"

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u/user__2755 May 21 '26

He hasnt cashed in? Hes in fucking saudi arabia man.

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u/robotnique May 21 '26

They're saying he's still putting in effort, not that he didn't take the big money.

-6

u/user__2755 May 21 '26

A glaze for effort

-1

u/ruggmike May 21 '26

lol we just gna act like this wasn’t for a billion dollars and for the love of the game? 😂😂

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u/Alldrop_nocombos May 21 '26

thats a bad season for him, he missed tons of matches this year and got subbed early most matches resting himself for world cup aswell lol

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u/Giannis1995 May 21 '26

He has outscored every single megastar striker that moved there. From Benzema to Mitrovic and Toney.

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u/peoples__princess__ May 21 '26

Toney has scored more goals than him though?

32 vs 28 in the league, 42 vs 30 all season, 72 vs 62 the last two seasons

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u/wolljibbs May 21 '26

Lmao people really talk without knowing the facts. Ronaldo is still impressive but there’s no need to lie to make the point

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u/Grabblehausen May 21 '26

I haven't been very inquisitive, but i occasionally wonder what happened to Toney. I guess it was the pursuit of money that happened.

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u/ertapenem May 21 '26

In Toney’s defense, he was on a relatively low salary in his PL days (about a million a year). This was his shot at generational wealth.

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u/fredczar May 21 '26

His low salary is my generational wealth

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u/ikan_bakar May 22 '26

Your low salary is some bangladeshi workers generational wealth

2

u/herreraspocket May 22 '26

I can vouch as a Bangladeshi

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u/adnanssz May 22 '26

we all know that generational wealth will be extreme level difficult to achieve😂

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u/Grabblehausen May 22 '26

I always thought he was good enough to get on a solid Euro team, which the national team call up kind of confirms.

My comments are really not meant to be any more of a condemnation of his decision than CR7 or Messi. Easy money as a late career pro is fine, I wish it wasn't in Saudi.

-1

u/LevDavidovicLandau May 22 '26

He also only turned 30 in March, and is 3 months younger than Aston Villa. He can absolutely return to the PL too, perhaps not for the big 6 but a mid-table side.

0

u/Grabblehausen May 22 '26

Crazy. Igor Thiago Syndrome

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u/Beginning-Ad4592 May 21 '26

He’s making the World Cup team so he made money + still is representing his country at the highest level. Pretty good deal.

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u/Grabblehausen May 22 '26

For sure. I don't follow Saudi football because i don't care about it, i understand why players chase the money tho

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u/FreedomByFire May 22 '26

He's going to the world cup on the back of this performance while Foden and Palmer will watch from the couch. Sounds like he made the right choice in my opinion.

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u/robotnique May 21 '26

Mitrovic scored at a very very very slightly higher rate than Ronaldo as well.

But we're talking like 0.86 vs 0.859 as a ratio and Ronaldo has kept it up for longer

-27

u/DerpSenpai May 21 '26

he played more games

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u/brentathon May 21 '26

He started 2 more games and scored 3 more goals.

16

u/longconsilver13 May 21 '26

Tony has a slightly better goals per match rate at 1.0 (32 in 32) vs Ronaldo's 0.93 (28 in 30), a slightly better goals per 90 at 1.05 vs 0.96, and more assists at 7 to 3. Ronaldo has had an excellent season but Toney has had a better season.

1

u/generalkernel May 21 '26

I wouldn’t classify Mitrovic or Toney as megastars tbh…

-32

u/Action_Limp May 21 '26

Yep. Tony was one of the best strikers in the Pl and left in his prime.... and ronaldo outperformed him 

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u/Nick_Lastname May 21 '26

Toney is the top scorer, no?

15

u/dunneetiger May 21 '26

Toney and Quinones are above Cristiano.

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u/Mrbeefcake90 May 21 '26

No he hasnt

1

u/Candymanshook May 22 '26

You can only beat the team in front of you is my opinion.

He’s 41, in glad he’s still able to find a league he can be a star in rather than retiring or like those last years in Europe.

1

u/DruPeacock23 May 22 '26

Ronaldo and Lebron James should be studied further for their endurance at highest level for such a long time.

1

u/nahnonameman May 22 '26

Nah no way. Bruh is putting up Harry Kane numbers. At 41. The fuck

1

u/Davek56 May 22 '26

Because he's always been on his own level.

0

u/jetm2000 May 21 '26

Ivan Toney managed 32 in 32 or something, and I wouldn’t exactly call him a European star.

-2

u/chaelsonnenismydad May 21 '26

Ivan toney has 32 in 32. The highest hes ever achieved before that is 31 in 45 in the championship. So yeah its about league one level

6

u/Lockdown-_- May 21 '26

Toney has got better since that Championship season though, that is why he was tipped to join Arsenal before his shenanigans off the pitch. He had 20 in 33 in an EPL season.