"I am the best player in history: I have never seen anyone better than me"

An interview with Cristiano Ronaldo lasting almost an hour usually becomes a big event, regardless of whether it takes place on the last day of the transfer market. The Portuguese had his share of protagonism in the one-on-one with his friend Edu Aguirre in 'La Sexta'. That harmony between the two led the conversation to several topics, some of them uncomfortable in other moments of the Portuguese footballer's career: Arabia, routines, Real Madrid, Messi, the mirror of history... 

Life in Saudi Arabia

Cristiano signed for Al Nassr in 2023 in a transfer that was ultimately instrumental in the turnaround in the Saudi Arabian league. “Very good, the truth is that I'm going to do two years and I'm really liking the experience. I like living here, my family likes it too. In my life I have always been a person of challenges, of new things. Since I was 12 years old, when I left Madeira, I was like that. I am not intimidated by big challenges, I like them. I didn't lose sleep over coming to Arabia because I knew what the league was like here, that it was a totally different direction in my life and a challenge that I wanted very much. I just need to be with my family, with Georgina and my children. To have everything a family can have to be well: education, security, good schools, good house. I feel good, I feel happy,” he said.

“When I made the decision to come I didn't think that the League would grow so fast, but I knew that after one or two years it would be very top, as it is at the moment. It was in the first year, things went very fast. People don't know what the level is like here, they talk and give their opinion too much. That's normal. It's a completely different reality when you talk about Arabia or, for example, the United States. It's a worse league in the United States, obviously, but because it's Saudi Arabia you look down on it a little bit more, that's what I feel. But I know that those people who talk don't know what they are saying. Only those who play and watch the teams that are there are the ones who give value,” added the Portuguese.

On the feeling that everything is bought with money: “It doesn't work like that and it's not going to work like that. Obviously, the financial power here is much more powerful than in Europe, that's a reality. Today you can only have eight foreigners who can play plus two U23s. It's limited.

Mentality, hard work and routine

Cristiano Ronaldo has always been associated with this obsession for hard work from a personal point of view: “It's a commitment, a passion. I still get up with the desire to train and play matches. You ask me if it's the same as it was before... maybe not, a little less. But I still have that passion. I always have it, it's a motivation. I do it with passion. It's hard, obviously, but I go. It's a commitment. Do you think I go to the gym every day with desire? No, I don't. But I go because I have a commitment. But I go because I have a commitment.

Why go on? “History has already been written, it's not about continuing to make history. I could quit today and I wouldn't regret anything. I think it would be a shame because I'm still doing very well, I'm still making a difference. If I know I can continue to make a difference for another year or two... I live very much in the present now, I don't want to think long term. It's about thinking week by week, making a good schedule, preparing for games and training. I enjoy football every day.

Ronalso, used to living with fame for years, has already assimilated not being able to do certain things. “Obviously there are things I would like to do, but I know what I am and I try to enjoy what I can do. When we hear one criticism, we forget that there are 100 positive ones and we go to that criticism. I try to value the good, to be with who makes me happy. Everything else... it's normal, I'm not to blame for being the most famous, the most followed. There are people who like Cristiano, others who don't like him, but want to know what he does? Obviously, I would like to sit in a bar, watch the cars go by and nobody knows me. But why would I think about something that is not going to happen. I see what is possible to do,” he reflected.

Competitive nature as fuel

That desire to keep playing, scoring and winning fuels the almost 40-year-old Cristiano: “Many times I forget what I conquered because that gives me motivation because it gives me to do better every year, I think that's what makes the difference with the others. If someone else was in my position with my conditions, maybe I would have left football10 years ago. That is why I say that I am different from the others. Not only by football numbers, but also by outside numbers. It's all the same. I am different, period. Numbers don't deceive, I don't have to brag. I brag about something that is true, there is no shame in assuming the facts.”

His physical strength accompanies a preventive work that helps not to suffer with injuries: “I play more in Arabia than in Europe. In the European Championship I was the player who had played the most minutes. Why don't I get injured? There has to be a luck factor and a preparation factor. I've been injured a couple of times in my life. There is a factor of minimizing the risk of injury. There is a luck factor for everything in life, but luck is something you look for. I try to look for the possible mechanisms to look for that luck. The way to minimise injuries due to the number of games is to train less. Specific training sessions for each player. Less wear and tear on the body, physically, to be able to perform with less risk of injury. That's my point of view.

“I can't not think about football. For me, recovery is as important as training. I put in two hours of training plus gym and come home and play paddle tennis with friends. If I train for three hours, I have to do three hours of recovery. If I go downstairs with Gio and we watch a Netflix movie, then I do another machine. It doesn't cost anything. I don't diet, the word diet, for me, is having good routines. If I feel like having a hamburger, that's fine. It's the routine. I implemented a theory that when you're young you can do 50-50. You have energy, you can eat 50% nonsense. You get older and that percentage has to go down. I do things right, there is a psychological factor that helps you too, which is having the freedom to eat something you like. Once a week. It's okay... I'm not going to eat this every day. If my son comes in with a cookie, I'm not going to be a rude parent. It's a cookie,” he endorsed.

And, despite everything, he does not live obsessed with a great pending challenge: 1,000 goals in his career. “People are a bit too concerned about that. I know I have a little bit of guilt with this. They don't seem to value what I'm doing, this year I'm scoring. They're more concerned about whether 85 are missing...I don't like that. Things have to happen in a natural way. If you score 925, 930... I'm the greatest of all time, that's it. Scoring goals... the numbers say so. If I make it, better for me. I don't know if I'm going to make it, but that's what I'm telling you: I don't think long term. I swear on my children, I think in the present. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Maybe I wake up unmotivated and I don't want to play anymore. That way you will better appreciate the moment, the football itself. The World Cup is coming up in a year and a half, but there's still a year and a half to go. I'm not obsessed with that,” he admitted.

Criticism management and the future

“Now I click on something and I read that ‘Cristiano whatever...’ doesn't fit me. I know it's people who don't know me, who have never been with me or who are envious. My position generates a lot of envy. And on top of that I have other aspects that generate even more envy. It will always be part of my history and I have to live with the people who love me and with those who don't”, he argued at the beginning when Edu Aguirre brought up the subject of what others may think about his personality.

How he deals with defeat: “That anger of not accepting defeat is less than when I was 20 years old, but at the same time it is there. I accept more when I get home, not on the field. Whatever happens on the field, stays on the field. I can't come home to my family with my football problems, it's not fair. At the beginning it was difficult, at Madrid I missed a chance or a penalty and I would lock myself in the room angry with myself. I wouldn't allow myself to miss, I would talk to myself with the lights off. I would go to bed without dinner, I would ask myself why I was shooting to the left or to the right. Talking to myself. I don't regret being like that because that past I still have some of it.”

“I've always been very competitive. From a young age, I hated to lose. I didn't accept defeat. I would go home and cry, a neighbor used to call me 'el Llora'. I still have that bad feeling of losing when I'm on the pitch, but that's the way I am, I'm not going to change. If my motivation is still the same, it's because I keep those competitive residues from the past. I hope to continue like that, but also in a more balanced way, with my children. Sometimes I come home and my daughter reproaches me for why I was talking to the referee like that, raising my arms. And I say, 'Well, that's how daddy is...”

The day he retires from football: “It will be difficult, obviously, but I am preparing myself. I have been preparing my future since I was 27 or 28 years old. With several companies, things that can motivate me, things in which I can contribute to society, to young people. Not only hotels, clinics, preparation companies. But to do things that I can spend time on, that I can have fun with as well. Learning other sectors where I think I can contribute something, but it will be difficult, obviously. On a mental level it will be difficult. I don't think about it, but I know it's close. But I think I will be minimally prepared. I know because I talk to Pepe, who recently retired, and he tells me he's better than ever. I think one of the things that can make you accept it better is to prolong your career as much as possible so that when you leave you are proud of yourself because you can't do it anymore. If I quit at 41, 42... It's a lot of age... all this is already a gift. I dedicate too much to this and sometimes I live too little. Sometimes I'm in the national team and I'm not at my son's birthday. It's hard for me. I will be able to be at the most important moments”.

The goal is addictive: “Obviously. It's the best feeling in the world and the most difficult thing in football. It's scoring goals and not suffering. I love scoring goals, I still have that euphoria. To be a coach? I don't want to. I'm telling you now and I'm going to tell you 10 years from now. It's almost impossible. I want to do things I haven't mastered and I want to learn. I don't want to be a coach because I played football all my life and being a coach is even more difficult. I don't think my personality is very well suited to being a coach. I don't need to be a coach. Something related to football? Sporting director no, being a club owner makes more sense, I don't rule that out. If there is a good business, I don't rule it out. I don't have any club in mind, football is very much about moments. That could happen.

The 39-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo still watches football: “From time to time, it's my passion. I don't watch every day, but I watch Sporting, which is my club, Manchester United, Real Madrid. I'm not a geek, but I do from time to time. I watch Madrid a lot because Mateo likes Mbappe a lot. Playing as a striker? I think it's not his position to be a striker. If I were at Madrid, I would teach him to play as a No 9. I wasn't either, I was a winger. I think he shouldn't be a typical striker, but play in his own way. I would play more or less like Cristiano does. I appear inside the box, I'm not inside the box. When I play like that, nothing comes out of me. When you're unpredictable, and he has those conditions... he can't play as a striker, he can't just wait there for a cross. He has the legs to do it. If I do it, won't Mbappe do it? But we have to look after him, he's very good. Madrid has to protect him and I'm sure he's going to give us a lot of joy.

Real Madrid journey

“Spain is my home. My children grew up there. I played many years at Real Madrid, the place where I was happiest in football. Obviously I will always have it in my heart. I have done very important things there and that's why people don't forget. I left Madrid because I wanted a different stage in my life, I wanted a different motivation and the stage was closed. I wasn't too upset about leaving because it was something I said to the president, who accepted that I could leave. In the negotiation phase he didn't behave so well with me, although I understand that because he always does it that way. I couldn't go back because I had already given my word to Juve and the president wanted to go back. But I appreciate Florentino a lot, I think he is a worthy president, a person who treated me well. I have a lot of respect for him. We talk from time to time. Going back to the Bernabeu? I don't rule it out, I left a legacy there. Maybe when I finish my career I can do something there. 80,000 people... it could be something cool,” he admitted.

Rivalry with Barcelona: “We lived a week with a sky-high tension, but it was nice. It was a great rivalry. Madrid-Barcelona, Cristiano-Messi, Pique-Sergio Ramos. They talked about everything. It was more Cristiano-Messi, obviously, but it was nice. And it was healthy.

An endless face-to-face with Messi: “I've never had a bad relationship with him. We shared 15 years on the awards stage and we always got along very well. I remember I used to translate what they said in English. Messi, you're going to stay here and then they're going to ask you a question,' I remember. He always treated me well, he defended his club and I defended mine. I think we fed off each other. There were years when he wanted to play everything and score, and I did too. Like Senna and Prost, who motivated each other. Will we see those figures again? I wish, it would be very good for football, but I see it difficult, honestly. But it's possible, who knows.

On being so hated at the Camp Nou: “I liked playing there. I don't know how many goals I scored there, but many. It was a stadium where I liked to play, I would come up. They whistled at me. There was a different aura in the stadium, I liked it. You think about doing well to be able to silence those people, that's what I did. Did I like to score more at the Camp Nou than at the Bernabeu? Yes, yes. A rival ground, everyone whistles at you. That's the beauty of football. The 'calm down, calm down' comes from there, from being calm that the 'little bug' is going to make the difference”.

On Vinicius: “I think he should win the Ballon d'Or, but I'm not surprised either. Not because I didn't win one, but because there is no credibility. Vinicius won the Champions League, he made a difference, he scored goals. There has to be more credibility in the awards, something behind more serious. I was disappointed for Vinicius because he deserved it, emphatically, but for me there is no credibility. I already felt the same as Vinicius twice, yes. You feel helplessness, but then you understand. You accept fights that you are not going to win, what you have to do is withdraw. That your values are more important than other things”.

On Bellingham: “He has a spectacular future, he will help Madrid a lot. He reminds me of Zidane, he has a lot of Zidane in him. Less quality? Zidane was brilliant, but Bellingham is 21 or 22 years old, he has the whole future ahead of him. He's going to give a lot to Madrid, he's going to be a crack.

On Ancelotti: “I like him a lot, a spectacular person. We won a lot of things together. Madrid's pressure is like that, the coach knows it. That's how it is in football, when you don't get results at a club of this magnitude it's difficult to keep it up. I think that 90% of the time it helps that a coach has been a player. It is very difficult otherwise. If you look at the history of football, 48 of the 50 best coaches of all time were players. There are exceptions, like everything in life”.

 

February 3, 2025