Cristiano Ronaldo's New Deal and What It Means for His Real Madrid Team-Mates

As you might expect in the light of the club’s pending FIFA player registration ban, Real Madrid have been busy locking up the family silver in recent weeks. The heart, the present and the future of the European champions' team, from Toni Kroos through Luka Modric and Lucas Vazquez all the way to Gareth Bale’s huge deal, have signed fresh terms in the recent past as the Bernabeu club has underlined its medium-term plan, at least.

None of those renewals, though—not even that of Bale—have quite carried the flourish of the official ceremony to commemorate Cristiano Ronaldo’s new deal, which contracts him to El Real until 2021. In a packed Palco de Honor at the Bernabeu on Monday afternoon, a bespectacled Ronaldo posed with his closest family and confidantes, with president Florentino Perez on one side of him in the group photo and his mother Dolores on the other.

Perez waxed lyrical on his star, still the major signing of his second term of presidency, referring to him as the “worthy heir” to the late Alfredo Di Stefano (as reported by EFE, in Spanish). The great man, had he been there, “would have been proud,” said the president. That Ronaldo’s contract, assuming he sees it through, would take him past Di Stefano’s 11 years of service as a player to 12, is not insignificant at a club with a firm grasp of its history.

Yet there’s no sense, despite widespread initial reports in the summer that the deal would only last to 2020, that Ronaldo’s new contract is a metaphorical gold watch for services rendered. He himself was keen to emphasise that, saying it “isn’t the last contract” (as reported here by Marca, in Spanish), and that his plan is to play until the age of 41.

Even if Ronaldo accompanied that projection with his famous grin, he didn’t seem to be joking. Regardless, what is important in terms of Real Madrid’s immediate future is that their No. 7 will be part of it for a while. As he thanked the fans and the club, and admitted that “five years is a lot,” thoughts turned to what will have to happen for the club’s record goalscorer to be still active and useful at the age of 36, when his new deal will be reaching his climax.

While there is no doubting that Ronaldo is a symbol of the club’s prestige and power, it is also a recognition of faith in a change in him which has already begun. That metamorphosis, however gradually it is taking place, is entirely necessary. The last couple of years, beginning just before that painful, hobbled 2014 World Cup all the way through to the strains of the summer’s Euros, have meted out their share of wear and tear to this most physically defined of footballers.

So the contract is a show of faith in his ability to complete that change into the next stage of Ronaldo. Portugal’s captain is on an inexorable path to becoming a pure No. 9, a streamlined but still-explosive player, using that strength and that merciless finishing, a footballing version of Elvis in his ’68 Comeback Special. It's reasonable to assume his scoring in only three of eight La Liga starts so far this season (albeit for five in eight overall) is transient rather than a source of genuine concern.  

Francisco Seco/Associated Press/Associated Press

None of this will be news to Bale, of course. He signed his own contract extension, to 2022, knowing Ronaldo’s deal was coming. The idea that the Wales forward has consigned himself to playing some sort of subordinate role in the team in the light of Ronaldo’s continuation is, of course, nonsense, based on a misguided assumption that the Portuguese will continue to be a wide attacker.

That’s impossible, as the last few years have increasingly proven and as Ronaldo himself has even begun to admit. From pretty much this point forward, Bale will be El Real’s main attacking animator, bursting from deep and from out wide as well as ending up on the end of moves. Like Ronaldo, of course, Bale has become a monster in the air.

Under Fernando Santos, Portugal have already made the necessary adjustments for the evolution of Ronaldo, as the 4-4-2 showcased during the Euros is a system built to serve him, and it saves him as much running. His forages for the ball are becoming less and less. This is the sight of an elite player becoming an elite penalty-box player.

So the players in Los Merengues’ current squad who stand to be the most affected by Ronaldo’s continued growth are Alvaro Morata and—crucially—Karim Benzema. If Ronaldo is permanently switched to centre-forward and the Spanish Liga leaders stick with a default 4-3-3 shape, then Morata and Benzema would face the prospect of significantly reduced playing time (especially in the France striker’s case), particularly with the emergence of Lucas Vazquez to fill a hole on the right.

Zinedine Zidane’s decision to hold on to Morata this summer, rather than use him in the widely anticipated role of transfer collateral, shows that the young Spain forward is valued. Experiments with Morata in a 4-4-2 shape suggests this could be an option going forward too. In theory, Morata should be a decent foil for Ronaldo in such a formation, with pace, directness, unselfishness and the ability to draw defensive attention. That also makes him a more than presentable locum for Ronaldo should he need a breather.

Benzema, of course, has been the ultimate foil for Ronaldo down the years, having arrived in the same summer of 2009. It is surprising to many that the Lyon-formed forward has lasted that long in Madrid, but his movement and intuition for a pass—and specifically, a pass that more often than not feeds Ronaldo—has kept him relevant while speculation linking him with a move has recurred, and through drops in form, fitness and off-pitch controversies.

Francisco Seco/Associated Press

The question is: how relevant is Benzema for a changed Ronaldo? If it is to be 4-3-3 with the leading goalscorer in the central role, the future looks bleak for the French striker. He has been important to El Real for as long as he has been important to Ronaldo, and if he becomes less so, it isn’t hard to see him being shipped off at a hefty fee, as per Mesut Ozil, Gonzalo Higuain or Angel Di Maria.

Seeing the pair together in a 4-4-2 would be interesting, though, and Zidane (who is close to Benzema) needs various options from his squad at his disposal over the next 18 months, assuming the FIFA ban is not to be overturned.

Clearly, Ronaldo will continue to cast his shadow over this team, even as he enters what we assume are his twilight years, and even as his role morphs to more of a reactive one. Real Madrid’s progress, to paraphrase Oscar Wilde, will depend as much as ever on a (perceived) unreasonable man.