Does Portugal need Ronaldo? What the numbers say
Cristiano remains the leading goalscorer in international football history and the biggest icon of Portuguese football. However, statistics from the last three major tournaments cast doubt on his status as an indispensable player.
Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be erased from the history of the Portugal national team. He has made 233 appearances for his country and scored 146 goals — more than any other footballer in men's international football. With him, Portugal won Euro 2016 and then the inaugural Nations League in 2019. In 2025, Ronaldo helped the team claim another trophy in the competition.
His status as a legend is beyond dispute. But there is one question: should that status continue to guarantee Ronaldo a place in the starting XI?
Since the 2022 World Cup, the idea that Portugal have become hostages to their own icon has been voiced with increasing frequency. The team boasts one of the most talented generations in its history, yet its attack continues to adapt around a forward who is already over 40. Let us examine what the last three major tournaments involving Cristiano tell us.
2022 World Cup: the moment his untouchable status disappeared
The World Cup in Qatar can be seen as the beginning of Ronaldo's decline with the national team. He started the tournament as captain and first-choice striker, but finished it as a substitute.
Across five matches, Cristiano played 291 minutes, scored one goal — a penalty against Ghana — and registered no assists.
Portugal's most effective attacking player was Bruno Fernandes, with two goals and three assists in four matches. The team's top scorer was Gonçalo Ramos, who found the net three times.
All three of Ramos's goals came in the round-of-16 clash with Switzerland. Fernando Santos left Ronaldo on the bench, and Portugal recorded their most emphatic victory of the tournament — 6:1. Ramos added an assist to his hat-trick, while Portugal's attack looked faster, more varied and less predictable than it did with Ronaldo on the pitch.
Of course, one match does not prove that the team is always stronger without Ronaldo. Santos left him on the bench again in the quarter-final, but Portugal lost 0:1 to Morocco. Cristiano came on in the second half but could not save his team.
At that tournament, CR7 failed to shine either in finishing or in chance creation. According to Opta, he created four chances for his teammates throughout the competition. By comparison, Bruno Fernandes created nine, Raphaël Guerreiro six and Bernardo Silva five.
Yet it was in Qatar that the old axiom disappeared: Ronaldo must start every decisive match. Ramos showed that a mobile centre-forward can offer the national team not only finishing, but also movement, pressing, link-up play and runs that create space for teammates.
Euro 2024: 23 shots, 3.6 xG and not a single goal
If the 2022 World Cup raised doubts, Euro 2024 made them far more serious.
Roberto Martínez restored Ronaldo's status as the undisputed first-choice striker. Cristiano started all five matches and played 486 minutes. The result: zero goals and one assist.
He registered his only assist against Turkey, when he could have taken the shot himself but instead laid the ball off to Bruno Fernandes.
The statistics clearly do not favour Cristiano. He attempted 23 shots — only Kylian Mbappé had more. The quality of those chances was valued at approximately 3.6 expected goals, but Ronaldo failed to convert a single one.
The round-of-16 clash with Slovenia was particularly telling. Portugal played for 120 minutes without scoring. Ronaldo had several excellent chances, and Jan Oblak saved his penalty in extra time. Cristiano burst into tears, but later converted his attempt in the shootout. The hero was Diogo Costa, who saved three penalties in a row.
The quarter-final against France followed the same script: 0:0 after 120 minutes, several missed chances and elimination on penalties. In their last three Euro matches — against Georgia, Slovenia and France — Portugal failed to score a single goal.
Bruno Fernandes was once again Portugal's best player for chances created, with eight.
Roberto Martínez understood that Cristiano could no longer provide the same intensity without the ball or make the difference in the chance-creation phase. He backed Ronaldo's greatest strength — his experience and goalscoring instinct inside the penalty area. Unfortunately for Portugal, that bet did not pay off.
Portugal repeatedly looked for Ronaldo with crosses and cutbacks, and the problem was not limited to poor finishing. The approach itself made the team predictable and prevented its most creative players from fully expressing themselves.
2026 World Cup: three goals, but no improvement
Ronaldo's statistics at the 2026 World Cup look better at first glance. He scored three goals in five matches and finished as Portugal's top scorer at the tournament.
But the context changes the picture somewhat.
Cristiano scored two of his three goals in the 5:0 rout of Uzbekistan. It was a historic night: Ronaldo became the first player to score at six World Cups. He scored his third goal from the penalty spot in the round-of-32 match against Croatia.
In Portugal's other four matches at the tournament, Ronaldo did not score from open play. Portugal drew with DR Congo and Colombia, edged Croatia thanks to a stoppage-time goal from Ramos, and then lost 0:1 to Spain.
Against DR Congo, Cristiano touched the ball just 25 times — his lowest total in a major-tournament match. He attempted three shots, failed to hit the target, completed no successful dribbles and created no chance for a teammate. Against Colombia, he had three attempts, but their combined value was just 0.02 xG.
The most revealing statistic concerns the tournament as a whole: 17 shots and not a single chance created. Ronaldo set a World Cup anti-record: since detailed data collection began in 1966, no player had ever taken so many shots at a single World Cup without creating a single chance for a teammate.
Portugal's leading chance creator was left-back Nuno Mendes, with 11. Bruno Fernandes created six, Francisco Conceição four, and Raphaël Leão and João Cancelo three each. Ronaldo does not appear in that ranking.
He played 441 minutes across five matches, scored three goals and provided no assists. Raphaël Leão, Bruno Fernandes, Cancelo and Pedro Neto all finished the tournament with at least one assist.
Three goals cannot be ignored. But two came in one emphatic victory, while the third was a penalty. In every other situation, Ronaldo had almost no influence on the development of attacks. Portugal's problems with predictability in the final phase of attacks have not gone away.
Four goals across three tournaments
Ronaldo's combined statistics across the last three major tournaments look like this: 15 matches, four goals and one assist.
Two of the four goals came from penalties, while the other two were scored against Uzbekistan in a single match. At Euro 2024, he failed to convert any of his 23 shots. At the 2026 World Cup, he scored three times but created not a single chance for his teammates.
Bruno Fernandes was Portugal's leading chance creator at the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024. At the 2026 World Cup, Nuno Mendes surpassed him. Ramos and a group of players with one goal each were Portugal's top scorers at the 2022 World Cup and Euro 2024 respectively. Only at the latest World Cup did Ronaldo finish top, but his scoring output was concentrated in the game against the tournament debutants.
The numbers reveal an obvious trend. Ronaldo no longer provides the same intensity without the ball, rarely creates an advantage through dribbling and has almost no influence on the build-up to his teammates' shots. His main value lies in finishing attacks inside the penalty area. But even that strength no longer compensates for his shortcomings.
Portugal without Ronaldo: is it really a better team?
Portugal rarely play without Ronaldo in the starting XI, but when they do, the team is fascinating to watch.
The most famous example is the 6:1 victory over Switzerland 6:1 at the 2022 World Cup, with Ramos scoring a hat-trick. The forwards constantly switched positions, the team moved the ball faster and did not try to end every attack with a pass to one particular player.
In September 2023, Portugal thrashed Luxembourg 9:0 without the suspended Ronaldo, recording the biggest victory in their history. Ramos, Gonçalo Inácio and Diogo Jota all scored twice.
In November 2025, Cristiano was suspended again, while Portugal beat Armenia 9:1 to secure qualification for the World Cup. Bruno Fernandes and João Neves both scored hat-tricks.
Even at the 2026 World Cup, the winning goal against Croatia came after Ronaldo had left the pitch. Raphaël Leão delivered the cross, and Ramos secured victory for Portugal in the 94th minute.
Of course, the sample size is very small and does not provide serious grounds for claiming that “Cristiano is dragging the national team down”. You cannot simply remove Ronaldo from the lineup and guarantee a rout against every opponent. Portugal have also lost without him, while his goals helped them win the 2025 Nations League.
However, these examples prove something else: the team is capable of creating plenty of chances, scoring goals and playing entertaining football without building everything around Cristiano. Without him, Portugal's football often becomes less hierarchical. Anyone can take the shot, and teammates do not look for the captain with a pass when a better option is available. Players such as Bruno, Bernardo, Vitinha and Neves show their best qualities in this kind of system.
Does Portugal have a ready-made replacement?
Gonçalo Ramos seemed to be Ronaldo's obvious successor, but he has never established himself as the first-choice striker. Consistency has been an issue, while club problems and competition for places have limited his match rhythm.
Raphaël Leão is far more dangerous on the wing. João Félix is not a classic centre-forward. João Neves can combine movement, aggressive pressing and finishing, but Portugal do not have a player who could simply reproduce the best version of Ronaldo.
But they do not need to search for one. The replacement should not be a single new superstar forward, but a different attacking structure. Ramos can play against opponents who need to be pressed aggressively. Leão and Conceição can attack space. Bruno, Bernardo and João Neves can make more late runs into the box from deep.
Ronaldo himself can still be useful. He remains dangerous in the air, positions himself well in the penalty area, takes penalties and can decide an individual moment. But those are arguments for an important role in the squad, not for an automatic 90 or 120 minutes in every match.
So, does Portugal need Ronaldo?
Portugal's new head coach, Jorge Jesus, who had already worked with Cristiano at «Al-Nassr», included him in the squad for the Nations League matches and explained his decision:
«The most important thing is his performance. Past achievements do not matter.
He has a special status and has won five "Ballon d'Ors", but does that influence my decisions? No.
But is he a special player? Absolutely».
However, another quote is even more interesting:
«Cristiano is just like every other player. If he plays well, he will be on the pitch. If not, he will not play».
How capable Jesus is of putting this concept into practice is a rhetorical question. Santos tried to do it — and left the team. Martínez talked about it, but lacked the courage to follow through.
In reality, Ronaldo does not need to be immediately removed from the national team. Portugal do not have a centre-forward reliable enough to easily turn away from the leading scorer in their history.
But the team must gradually move away from a model in which his presence matters more than his form, the opponent and the demands of a particular match.
The last three major tournaments have shown that his former effectiveness is gone. Four goals in 15 matches, just one assist, no goals from 23 shots at Euro 2024 and 17 shots without creating a single chance at the 2026 World Cup — that is far too little return for a player around whom the entire attack is built.
Portugal sometimes work too obviously for Ronaldo's statistics: teammates look for him with crosses, give him set pieces and continue to build through him even when a match demands greater speed and mobility. This helps Cristiano break records, but it does not always help the national team move closer to trophies.
Ronaldo has almost nothing left to prove. And Portugal must prove that they are capable of choosing the best lineup without looking at a player's name or past achievements.
They may still need Cristiano. But they no longer need to depend on him.
Steven Perez
Dailysports's expert
