Does Cristiano Ronaldo Need to Win More with Real Madrid to Enshrine His Legacy?

At the end of last season, on Easter Saturday, I watched Real Madrid play Granada at a Bernabeu stadium bathed in Spring sunshine.

On this occasion, it wasn’t for work but simply for pleasure.

My son and my daughter accompanied me, as I wanted to take them to see Cristiano Ronaldo, arguably the greatest footballer in the world, and the reigning Ballon d’Or winner.

He did not disappoint. For the first time in his career, Ronaldo scored five goals in a match as Real Madrid ran out 9-1 winners, their biggest victory in La Liga for nearly half a century.

Over 90 minutes, my son wore an expression of dazed happiness as the man whose poster he has on his wall spectacularly came to life on the pitch below him.

In the space of eight minutes in the first half Ronaldo scored a hat-trick, which included a clinical finish with his right foot, a predatory volley and a brilliantly hit, rasping 20-yard drive from outside the area.

In the second half, Ronaldo would add two more goals, both headers—and he could also have had more—to complete a remarkable afternoon.

Each goal was celebrated with his trademark pirouette and thrusting pout, which my children would gleefully replicate outside the Bernabeu afterward.

It is an ego-driven celebration that screams "look at me," but he deserved each moment, for the crowd understood what it was witnessing: one of the game’s greatest players at their very best.

That 9-1 win put Madrid two points behind Barcelona with nine games remaining, but they would ultimately fail to overtake their rivals and were still in second place at the end of the season.

This meant a very familiar ending to a campaign for Ronaldo, for in his six seasons at Real Madrid, he has only finished top of La Liga once, back in 2012.

Ronaldo has had to stand by and watch Barcelona win La Liga four times, and even Atletico Madrid have won it as much as him since his move in 2009.

For all the goals, a staggering 313 of them so far, and all the moments of sheer genius, it is an oddity that this has only delivered him one La Liga title and one Champions League in six seasons.

That has to rankle with Ronaldo, with his keen appreciation of his own talent, and he will be well aware during this same period Lionel Messi has outstripped him, winning four titles and two Champions Leagues.

At the start of another La Liga season, and now aged 30, does Ronaldo need to win more trophies to enshrine his own legacy?

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It is hard to believe he could keep scoring at the same extraordinary rate and not add to his surprisingly modest amount of trophies at Madrid.

We have been privileged to watch Ronaldo and Messi playing at the same time and indulge in a private war for supremacy.

Since Ronaldo arrived in Spain, Messi might have won more, but over the course of their entire careers, Ronaldo, including his six seasons at Manchester United, keeps pace with the Argentinian.

Ronaldo can boast of four titles compared to Messi’s seven and two Champions Leagues compared to Messi’s three.

But should the Portuguese be concerned about how his haul of trophies will impact upon his legacy? Does it have any real influence?

The truth is if he never won another trophy, or even played another game, he would still be recognised as one of the greatest footballers ever.

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In the pantheon of football greats, Ronaldo can proudly hold his own and has actually already won more than many of his fellow greats.

With at least another five years to play, Ronaldo has won more than possibly the greatest player of all time, Diego Maradona.

The Argentinian might have won the World Cup, but at club level, he won three domestic titles in his career, one with Boca Juniors and two with Napoli, and he never came close to winning the European Cup.

Zinedine Zidane can also boast of winning the World Cup, but his collection of three domestic titles with Juventus and Real Madrid and one Champions League lags behind Ronaldo.

Despite his lack of any international success, George Best is often afforded a place among these greats, but he would only have three medals pinned to his chest, two titles and a European Cup, which is once again a fraction of what Ronaldo has so far won.

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But Ronaldo would be wise not to swagger around this pantheon too much considering many of these fellow greats have won significantly more than him. 

Pele has those three World Cups and six national titles; Alfredo Di Stefano won thirteen titles in three different countries and five consecutive European Cups with Real Madrid; Johan Cruyff hoovered up ten titles and three European Cups.

The truth is all these players became greats not for how much they won, these were inevitable byproducts of their talent, but for how they made fans feel, how they drew people to stadiums and enthralled them.

A single title in six goal-laden seasons at Madrid is a curious statistic, but should Ronaldo never add to it, his legacy and place in the pantheon will not be affected.

Ronaldo might never win as much as Messi, but he doesn’t need to, he has already become one of the greats for his genius and for the wonderment he inspires each time he takes to the pitch, just as he did on that sunny day in April this year.