Can Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo Realistically Play Until the Age of 40?

Cristiano Ronaldo will turn 30 next year, but his form is currently showing little sign of slowing down. He has been in scintillating form in recent weeks, scoring hat-tricks in three of his last four league appearances, and is fast closing in on a number of Real Madrid records.

Indeed, his agent, Jorge Mendes, believes that Ronaldo is capable of continuing his career into his late-30s and beyond.

“We’ll never find another like him,” Mendes told Cadena Cope (h/t AS). “He’s getting better every day and will continue to improve until he gets to 40 years of age.”

There is clearly a degree to which Mendes was simply providing a boost to his client’s ego (and price tag), but his comments did raise an interesting question: Is Ronaldo capable of playing until the age of 40?

There are certainly a number of examples of players who have prolonged their careers beyond their mid-30s.

Francesco Totti continues to be the focal point of the Roma attack even at the grand old age of 38. Alvaro Recoba is still producing odd moments of magic back in Uruguay, while Teddy Sheringham played in the Premier League at 40 before eventually retiring aged 42.

There is, though, one thread that connects the aforementioned names. They were not players who relied on explosive pace or physical strength to prosper even during their prime. Intelligence and technical quality were always at the heart of their success.

Atletico Madrid midfielder Koke’s recent declaration to the radio programme Al Primer Toque (h/t Marca) that “Cristiano Ronaldo is an athlete, but Messi is God,” may have been a little unfair, but it is certainly true that Ronaldo relies more on his strength and speed than the likes of Totti, Recoba and Sheringham ever did.

Alvaro Barrientos/Associated Press

Yet Ronaldo need only look as far as his former Manchester United teammate Ryan Giggs for a template of how to evolve your game as age strips away the physical attributes for which you were once famed.

When Giggs was a flying left winger earlier in his career, it would have been hard to imagine him performing competently as a central midfielder into his late-30s.

“[When you get to my age] you have to change the way of thinking,” he told Marcus Christenson of The Guardian in 2012.

“I was a quick player when I was younger, now I am not so quick. You have to use your experience, use your intelligence on the pitch, to adapt your game and change your game, as I have done.”

The original, Brazilian Ronaldo gradually became more and more of a penalty-box striker as age and injuries chipped away at the explosive pace that had once made him such a threat from any location in the attacking half of the pitch.

While the technical attributes, vision and passing ability of Lionel Messi are likely to see the Barcelona man gradually move back into the role of a classic Argentinian playmaker, the new Ronaldo can be expected to follow the example of his namesake.

As AS columnist Alfredo Relano recently noted, it is an evolution that has already begun.

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Cristiano doesn’t set off from where he used to, with those brutal gallops, merciless both for the rivals and his own body. He looks for the ball higher up, leading the attack, his sprints are shorter, he looks to combine more. And it works. He's still scoring, and with this new style he’ll have more years left in him.

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Ronaldo used to be a master of picking up possession on the left flank and driving infield towards goal. While that part of his game still exists, he now also regularly drifts into central areas without the ball. Karim Benzema often peels left into the space he vacates, leaving Ronaldo free to receive the ball in central shooting zones.

Great players find ways to adapt their game in order to prolong their careers. Ronaldo leans on his physical attributes more than most, but his constant desire to refine and improve his game suggests he will find a solution to the effects of ageing.

It is unlikely to be at Real Madrid, maybe it will be back home in Madeira, but it is entirely possible that on some pitch, somewhere in the world, Ronaldo will still be banging in goals when he turns 40 in February 2025.

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