Before the 2010 World Cup, Nike launched the advertising campaign "Write The Future". They gathered A-list stars - Wayne Rooney, Didier Drogba, Ronaldinho, Fabio Cannavaro, Franck Ribery and Cristiano Ronaldo - scenes suggesting that their careers and lives will be shaped by the upcoming tournament in South Africa.
With Ronaldo, it is the image of him preparing to take a free kick, reflecting on the future that may await him if he brings Portugal to glory: Cutting the ribbon to inaugurate Cristiano Ronaldo Stadium, appearing in the animated film "The Simpsons" (Homer: "Ronal... D'oh! "), a giant statue erected in his honor, fans enthusiastically cheering his name when he came to attend the premiere of the movie "Ronaldo: The Movie".
The scene was cut right when he shot the ball, so we never saw the whole diễn biến in the director's mind. Considering that the setting is Ronaldo taking a free kick at the World Cup, it is highly likely that the ball will fly off target, hit the wall or fit snugly in the opponent's goalkeeper's arms.
Ronaldo and the World Cup, 20 years, 6 tournaments, that is not a beautiful love story.
Fragments over 2 decades
In 2006, at the age of 21, Ronaldo was a technical but also notorious winger after the "whispering" incident that caused Rooney to be sent off. That was the only World Cup he reached the semi-finals. After that, "Writing the Future" became a mockery. 2010 was an unimaginable sadness. In 2014, a Ronaldo at the peak of his form was tormented by a rotten tendon. In 2018, the hat-trick against Spain once ignited hope for a solo performance, but was still extinguished.
By 2022, everything became bitter. Internal conflicts, times sitting on the bench, the image of Ronaldo leaving the field in tears after losing to Morocco is considered a tragic ending. Summer 2026, Ronaldo's 6th World Cup participation, he was 41 years old. Portugal stopped before Spain, and this time, people no longer saw the anger of a substituted player, but the gaze of a man who understood that he had run out of energy.
Many people say this is a "over-the-top" tournament for him. But looking at the way he runs on the field in Toronto, the way he waves to the crowd, it's not like endurance. It's acceptance. He has stopped trying to write about the future, he is just enjoying the present.
World Cup does not define Ronaldo's legacy
There is a strange obsession that, without the World Cup, Ronaldo could not sit at the same table with the greatest people. But look at the numbers. 830 goals at club level, 146 goals for the National Team - these numbers don't lie. He is the greatest scorer in Real Madrid history, the greatest in Champions League history. A player who scores an all-time record does not need to prove his worth through 7 matches at the World Cup.
If Ronaldo is simply a "goal scorer" with cold, dull performance, he will still be a legend. Instead, he is a combination of superb technique and unfulfilled desire. The World Cup is like a kind of kryptonite - the only thing that weakens this superman. But Superman is still Superman, whether he is restrained by that blue stone or not?
Ronaldo once told Piers Morgan that the World Cup was not his only dream. Many people ridiculed that statement, saying that he was "salvaging" when he could not reach the peak of glory. But let's try to put the problem back, if Argentina lost in a penalty shootout to France in 2022, would Messi be less great? The answer is no! Greatness is not a cup, it is domination for 2 decades.
It's time to stop looking at Ronaldo through the lens of the knockout defeats. His career is not defined by the absence of the gold cup. It is defined by thousands of times he trains when others are asleep, by how he reinvents himself at Juventus, Real Madrid or Manchester United, and by the fact that he has never let anyone define who he is.
Ronaldo's attitude at this World Cup is completely different. He no longer screams because he was substituted. He laughs more, responding to the provocative questions of the media with the calmness of someone who has everything in hand. He has contributed 1,000% to football, and he stops with a clean conscience.
Although Nike's director did not draw the ending for the 2010 free kick, Ronaldo wrote a much happier ending with his entire career. Don't spend the rest of your life wondering about what has slipped away. For Ronaldo, the legacy has been written for a long time, on pages of history that no tournament can erase. The football world will remember him as a great scorer, not someone who has never won the World Cup.
You don't need it to be great.
