ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo's sometimes playful banter in a rare World Cup news conference ended in an exchange between Portugal's superstar and a reporter from Argentina.
Ronaldo took the moment on the eve of a round of 16 clash with border rival Spain to repeat something he has said at least once before.
This sixth World Cup for the former Manchester United and Real Madrid star will be his last.
“What remains with me is the people — the people who love you. I share hotels with the staff, Latino people, and those are spectacular memories. Yesterday on the flight, there was an Argentine flight attendant. And knew she was Argentine by the way she looked at me: ‘I knew you were Argentine by the way you looked at me. If you look away quickly, it means you don’t like Cristiano,’” Ronaldo said in translated remarks Sunday, breaking into a smile.
“I want to enjoy what will be my last World Cup to the fullest,” Ronaldo continued. “Hopefully, tomorrow won’t be my last match. That way, you can keep bashing me some more.”
Ronaldo, the career leader in international goals with 146, made similar comments in a television interview late last year, a few months after Portugal won the UEFA Nations League title with a riveting victory over Spain in a penalty shootout.
Many of the questions for the 41-year-old during a 25-minute session at the home of the NFL's Dallas Cowboys referred to what everybody in the packed room was assuming: This was it for Ronaldo.
Before the end, he joked with reporters that they were pushing him out the door. Just about every time he did, though, he would turn philosophical.
“There’s nothing missing,” Ronaldo said. “God was so generous toward me. He gave me everything I never expected to win, especially at the national team. And personally, the same thing. So it’s enjoying every moment. I’m not going to be more Cristiano or less Cristiano because I win the World Cup. Of course, we all have hopes, myself especially, and we all want all the conditions to win. But we know that only one is going to win.”
Ronaldo's finale on soccer's biggest stage — whenever that happens — will come eight years after he was the oldest to record a World Cup hat trick at 33. That was in a 3-3 draw with Spain in a group stage opener considered one of the World Cup's best matches, although both powers didn't reach the knockout stage.
“Not to say that we have to do man-to-man marking, but in certain areas of the field you’ve got to be aware that he’s there,” Spain coach Luis de la Fuente said in translated remarks. “He’s got the talent, he’s got the class, and he’s got the quality, and at any moment he can be decisive for the game. He can be the best. So we’re well aware of this.”
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Portugal is trying for a second consecutive trip to the quarterfinals. The only other time Portugal went deeper in the Ronaldo era was a semifinal run in his World Cup debut in 2006.
Ronaldo had the tying goal in Portugal's 2-1 win over Croatia in the round of 32. Three of his 11 World Cup goals have come in this tournament. It was a matchup of 40-somethings against Croatia's Luka Modric, his former Real Madrid teammate who was in his fifth World Cup at 40.
“What I have done throughout my career is to adjust to the nuances of age, knowing that I’m not the player I used to be,” Ronaldo said. “But one thing I can understand very clearly is nothing has changed because I can still score a goal. I hope I do that tomorrow, and if I don’t, I hope others on the team do.”
Barring a replay of his hat trick from 2018 in Russia, Ronaldo is unlikely to challenge the Golden Boot co-lead of seven shared by Lionel Messi of Argentina and France's Kylian Mbappé, who also have a substantial edge on the career World Cup goals list.
Messi set the record in this tournament and now has 20, while Mbappé is up to 19. Ronaldo sometimes bristles about where he stands among his rivals. But not on a day he reiterated his inevitable World Cup end.
“Besides some different opinions that you may have, I’m not doing so bad, right?” Ronaldo said. “You know, I scored three goals. Well, there are others that scored more, because they are doing incredibly well, but I’m not doing so bad. And I need to continue onward.”
For at least one more World Cup game.
This story has been corrected. A previous version reported erroneously that Ronaldo previously played for Manchester City.
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