Arsenal and France legend Thierry Henry criticized Cristiano Ronaldo for appearing to be more focused on his goal than the team during Portugal’s draw with the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday.
The 41-year-old is still going strong despite his age and is approaching an incredible 1,000 career goals thanks to his performances for Al Nasr in the Saudi Professional League.
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Still, yesterday was not Ronaldo’s day as Portugal could only manage a 1-1 draw with Congo, marking a disappointing start to their 2026 World Cup campaign.
As well as missing some chances, Ronaldo also appeared to get in the way of his teammates due to his strong desire to get on the scoresheet himself, as highlighted by Henry in the video clip below…
“The important thing is…the team needs to score, but you don’t need to score,” Henry said.
“Cristiano Ronaldo has been in this situation many times. If he scores here, he forces the defender to make a decision, but he wants to score and ends up in the path of Bruno Fernandes.”
Henry added that if Ronaldo had made a run into the six-yard box instead, defenders would have had to chase him, leaving space for Fernandes.
The Frenchman even said he could see the irritated reaction of his teammates.
Cristiano Ronaldo struggles while Lionel Messi shines at the World Cup
It’s only been one game, but you can see that there will be a huge debate, as always, about Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. The latter gives them a dream start to the World Cup.
Ronaldo appeared to be Portugal’s weak link in Portugal’s draw against Congo, but Messi was not in good form to score a hat-trick for Argentina in the win over Algeria.
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Messi won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina, scoring twice in the final against France, but Ronaldo has never won the tournament.
There is no doubt that this year will be Ronaldo’s last chance, but there are certainly serious questions at this point as to whether he should start any more games for his country.
On the other hand, Messi seems to still have what it takes to lead Argentina to glory once again.
