Cristiano Ronaldo has finally started talking openly about the one decision he has dodged for years: when to stop playing football. At 40, with 952 goals for club and country and more records than any other male player in history, the Portuguese forward now says the end is coming “soon” – and, for the first time, he is tying that choice more to his family than to trophies or personal milestones.
From Riyadh to Lisbon, Manchester to Abuja, his recent comments have reopened an emotional debate. Should a player still scoring freely and chasing the mythical 1,000-goal mark really walk away, or is it wiser to bow out while still near the top?
Early November 2025, speaking from his home in Riyadh on Piers Morgan Uncensored, Ronaldo admitted that retirement is no longer some distant idea. The Al-Nassr forward said he intends to hang up his boots “soon” so he can be more present for his five children and his fiancée, Georgina Rodríguez.
This time he did not hide behind vague language for long. As headlines flared across the world, Ronaldo clarified what “soon” means to him: one or two years. That sits neatly beside his public ambition to play at the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico – a tournament he has effectively ring-fenced as his final major outing with Portugal.
On the pitch, the numbers suggest he is nowhere near finished. He has scored eight goals in seven Saudi Pro League matches this season, still sprinting into channels, still pressing from the front, still finishing with the same cold precision that made him a star at Manchester United and Real Madrid.
Yet the tone of the November interview was different. Ronaldo spoke with a mix of calm and emotion about leaving the sport that turned him into a global brand. He admitted that when the moment comes it will be “very, very difficult” and accepted that nothing outside football can truly replicate the adrenaline of scoring a goal. Even so, he stressed that he has been planning for life after football since his mid-20s and believes he is mentally strong enough to manage the transition.
The conversation also revived his emotional link to Manchester United. He expressed sadness at the club’s slide, highlighting last season’s 15th-place finish as their worst league campaign since relegation in 1973–74. Despite the sour end to his second spell at Old Trafford, he still described United as “one of the most important clubs in the world” and “a club that I still have in my heart.”
Lurking under all of this is the numbers game. With 952 career goals already, he is roughly 48 short of the 1,000 mark, depending on how statisticians classify friendlies and unofficial matches. He has openly teased the idea that reaching that landmark could be the perfect finale before he finally walks away.
Recent profiles from international outlets sketch a man gradually shifting from pure football obsession to a broader life built around family, business and media.
Ronaldo remains under contract with Al-Nassr until June 2027, but he has now made it clear he does not expect to see out that deal as a player. In his November remarks, he repeated that the 2026 World Cup will be his last major tournament and showed little enthusiasm for hanging around in dug-outs or technical areas once his playing days are done.
He is instead positioning himself as:
A more present father
Ronaldo has five children – Cristiano Jr. (15, training with Al-Nassr and involved in Portugal’s U-16s), twins Mateo and Eva (8), Alana Martina (7) and Bella Esmeralda (3). They are being raised between Riyadh and Europe with Georgina.
He said he wants “more time” for himself and his family, stressing that after decades of a 24-hour football regime, he wants to “raise my kids” and be “more a family person, more present”.
A growing entrepreneur and media figure
The CR7 empire already stretches from underwear and fragrances to hotels and gyms. In November, he spoke freely about wanting to expand his businesses, explore his interests in UFC and padel and lean further into digital media.
He joked that he will “never be a YouTuber”, even though his content and collaborations already give him one of the strongest digital footprints in football. What he says he wants now is to “do funny things and things I’m not used to doing before” – content on his own terms.
A global ambassador
As Esports World Cup 2025 ambassador, Ronaldo is testing new partnerships at the intersection of sport, gaming and global pop culture, a role that keeps him visible even when he is not on the pitch.
Financially, there is no pressure to keep playing. By 39, he had already become football’s first billionaire, and reports suggest he earns around £12 million per month in Saudi Arabia. Still, he insists he continues to “live football 24 hours a day” in order to perform, a reminder that the same obsessive mindset that sustained his career has not vanished.
When his “soon” comments first spread, speculation went into overdrive. Some fans feared he was hinting at an immediate exit. Ronaldo chose to address that directly at a Saudi tourism summit on 11 November 2025.
“Soon for me means in ten years,” he said with a smile, before quickly adding, “No, I’m joking.”
He then laid out his thinking plainly:
He is “really enjoying the moment” with Al-Nassr and Portugal.
He feels “very good”, believes he is “quick and sharp” and is still scoring.
“What I mean by soon is probably one or two years,” he said.
On the 2026 World Cup, he was even more direct: it will definitely be his last, because he will be 41 by then.
Internationally, his numbers remain staggering. He has 143 goals for Portugal, the men’s world record. He said he has “given everything” to football for 25 years, broken “many records” and feels “really proud”. His message now is simple: “enjoy the moment, live the moment”.
Ronaldo also spoke about legacy through his children, especially Cristiano Jr., already scoring for Portugal’s U-16s. He said he hopes his children will surpass him and promised he would “never” feel jealous of any success they achieve. Above all, he said, he wants them to be happy and free, not crushed by the weight of being “your daddy’s child”.
Some of the more personal coverage this November linked his retirement thinking to a big step in his private life: formally proposing to Georgina Rodríguez, his partner since 2016, when they met in a Gucci store.
In a lighter feature, Ronaldo described how their daughters pushed him towards marriage. He said Georgina had asked for a ring, and then Alana and Bella joined in, telling him:
“You are going to give the ring to Mummy and you are going to be married.”
He said that gentle pressure from his daughters was the final nudge. He described Georgina as “the love of my life” and praised her for taking care of him and the whole family. The ring moment, caught on video, signalled that football is no longer the only centre of his world.
There is no confirmed wedding date, but people close to the couple suggest it is likely to take place after the 2026 World Cup, once his international career is over and his club future is clearer.
Asked about how retirement will feel, he admitted it will be emotionally heavy. He expects it to be tough and said he will “probably cry”, describing himself as “an easy guy to cry”. He also quoted Carl Jung – “after the 40s you really know” – and said he has reached that stage of deeper self-awareness.
Even his reaction to being substituted has changed. In the past, being taken off after scoring twice might have caused a scene. Now, he says, coming off is no longer a problem. He has had enough hat-tricks and big moments to accept that younger legs also need minutes.
Ronaldo’s current tone contrasts sharply with how he spoke about retirement over the last few years.
October 2025: “You’ve Done Everything” – But He Wanted More
At the Portugal Football Globe Awards in October 2025, weeks before his November comments, he collected the Prestige Award and told the audience he wanted to play “a few more years”. That night he admitted his family kept advising him to stop.
He recalled them saying:
“You’ve done everything. Why do you want to score a thousand goals?”
His response then was firm. He insisted he was still “producing good things”, still helping his club and his country, and saw no reason to walk away. He said he was sure that when it ends he will leave with a clear sense of fulfilment.
That coverage revisited his trophy-laden journey:
Manchester United: Three Premier League titles and the 2008 Champions League.
Real Madrid: Four Champions League crowns and two La Liga titles between 2009 and 2018.
Juventus: Two Serie A titles and continued scoring dominance.
Portugal: Euro 2016 and a Nations League title, sealing his status as the country’s greatest player.
At that point he was about 54 goals short of 1,000. By November 2025, that gap had shrunk to around 48.
He also said age was making him think differently and that he preferred to live “day by day”, focusing on immediate tasks such as World Cup qualifiers against Ireland and Hungary rather than obsessing over an end date.
September 2024: Portugal Retirement “Never Crossed My Mind”
After a difficult Euro 2024, where he failed to score and missed a key penalty against Slovenia, critics argued it was time for Ronaldo to step aside from the national team. In September 2024, ahead of Nations League fixtures against Croatia and Scotland, he pushed back strongly.
He said talk of international retirement came from the media, not from him, and insisted it had “never crossed” his mind to stop playing for Portugal. He claimed that criticism actually gave him “even more motivation”.
He repeated a familiar position: until the end of his career, he will always see himself as a starter. If he ever stops being an asset, he said, he will be the first to walk away, but only when he is sure in his own mind. He added that he has always accepted criticism and sees football as more than goals – for him, it is also about discipline and being an example.
August 2024: “Possibly” Ending at Al-Nassr
In August 2024, speaking to Portuguese outlet Now, Ronaldo said he did not know if he would retire “soon” or in “two or three years”, but admitted it was “possible” his last club would be Al-Nassr, because of how settled he felt there.
He said he was not thinking about coaching and imagined himself doing other things outside football. He even suggested that when the time comes to leave the national team, he might not announce it in advance. Instead, he preferred to concentrate on helping Portugal in the Nations League rather than planning a farewell tour.
Taken together, these earlier interviews show a player still fighting the idea of an ending, driven by milestones and competition, even as his family gently urged him to stop. The November 2025 comments, by contrast, reveal a Ronaldo more at peace with the fact that even legendary careers have a final chapter.
From his breakthrough at Sporting CP in 2002 to becoming a billionaire athlete, Ronaldo has redefined longevity and consistency. For many fans, the 2026 World Cup will be the last big stage of the longstanding GOAT debate between him and Lionel Messi.
Some believe a spectacular final tournament could tilt public opinion his way. Others argue that the debate was settled long ago. Ronaldo himself now seems less interested in that argument and more focused on leaving the game knowing he has squeezed everything out of his talent.
His November words suggest closure is coming, but the fire is still burning. The chase for 1,000 goals, the chance to carry Portugal into one last World Cup and the desire to feel “quick and sharp” until the end all show that the competitor inside him is not finished yet.
At the same time, family is no longer on the margins. His daughters pushing him towards marriage, his pride when he talks about Cristiano Jr., his references to Jung and age – all point to a new chapter in which Ronaldo is not only a footballer but a father, partner, businessman and global personality.
Football will lose a giant when he finally walks away. The sport may also gain a more rounded version of CR7 – one no longer defined only by goals, but by what he builds afterwards.
To test how ordinary people feel about this tension between staying in a job you still dominate and stepping aside for family, Fairview Africa took the question to the streets of Abuja.
Oga Augustine, a self-described super-fan, did not think twice.
He introduced himself as “a die-hard Ronaldo fan and a die-hard Manchester United fan”, explaining that he followed Ronaldo from England to Spain, then to Italy, and now to Saudi Arabia.
“If I am Ronaldo, as his die-hard fan, as long as I know Ronaldo is still very strong, I will play till my 50s,” he said. “What is the essence of retiring when he’s still strong and still has the energy?”
For Augustine, greatness should not be interrupted while the body still cooperates. If the legs are working and the goals keep coming, he believes Ronaldo should continue, age aside.
Veronica Moses took the opposite view.
“Me, I feel he should just retire,” she said. “His son is playing already and he has the money. He should spend quality time with his family. He should leave the rest for his son and other children.”
For Veronica, the logic is straightforward: his legacy is secure, his finances are more than enough and the next generation is already emerging. In her eyes, continuing to play risks missing family moments that trophies and records can never replace.
