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Is Ronaldo still the GOAT? Why a trophy can never define his greatness
From eating leftover burgers outside McDonald’s as a child to becoming a football superstar, Ronaldo’s incredible journey proves greatness is about more than one missing trophy
- PUBLISHED: Tue 7 Jul 2026, 7:27 PM UPDATED: Wed 8 Jul 2026, 12:04 AM
Peter Crouch, whose lean frame initially made him a subject of ridicule before he carved a career out his impressive goal-scoring skills in the Premier League, revealed a Cristiano Ronaldo dressing room secret in his autobiography.
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Crouch never shared the dressing room with the Manchester United legend, having played for the Red Devils’ bitter rivals Liverpool.
But he featured in two World Cups (2006 and 2010) for England, scoring 22 goals in 42 matches overall in his international career.
It was during his time in the England dressing room that he heard stories about Ronaldo from the Portuguese icon’s former Man United teammate Rio Ferdinand.
In his book, ‘Walking Tall: My Story’, Crouch, who still holds the record for most headed goals in Premier League history, wrote how a shirtless Ronaldo would stand in front of the mirror, playing with his hair and admiring his incredible physique.
“The other United players would try to wind him up. ‘Whatever. Leo Messi is a better player than you,” Crouch wrote.
“And he would shrug his shoulders and smile again. ‘Ah yes. But Messi does not look like this...’”
Much has been said about the size of Ronaldo’s ego, but many of his former teammates at Man United were stunned by the scale of his ambition ever since he joined the English giants in 2003 as a teenager.
Phil Neville, the former United defender, said it was frightening to see Ronaldo’s obsession with becoming the best player in the world.
During an interview with BBC 5 Live, Neville said the sheer size of United’s Carrington training ground paled in comparison to Ronaldo’s tireless efforts to master his craft.
"I saw the sacrifices that he made, I saw him develop as a youngster at Manchester United,” Neville recalled.
"He actually told us, 'I want to be the best footballer on the planet'.
"Carrington training ground is maybe a mile, two miles round. Every single day he would take a ball and do his tricks for a mile, two miles.
"His drive and ability to practise every single day is just phenomenal."
Suffice it to say, it was that relentless drive to keep working on his game that earned him five Ballon d’Ors and a truckload of goal-scoring records.
What he lacked in terms of pure natural ability, especially when compared to the freakish talents of Messi, his greatest rival, Ronaldo made up for it by following one simple principle in life — he continued to be the first player to arrive for training and be the last one to leave, every single day of his life.
It’s that sacrifice which took him to his sixth World Cup at the age of 41. In North America, despite struggling for top form, he became the first player to score in six successive World Cups.
But what he wanted more than anything else was the trophy itself. It was that dream to win the first World Cup for his country that kept him going.
Portugal’s defeat to Spain, the reigning European champions, in the round of 16 on Monday has now ended Ronaldo’s hopes of adding the only trophy missing from his cabinet.
The television cameras zoomed in on the Portuguese captain after the final whistle as Ronaldo looked like a man who knew it was the end of the road for him.
It was a tournament which saw him at his weakest, his three goals masking his lack of impact for the team. He had 17 shots at goal, none of which created a scoring opportunity for any of his teammates.
Against Spain, he spent 90 minutes plus the injury time without ever coming close to a promising scoring position. He had only 19 touches in the game — it was the second-fewest for him in a World Cup match for Portugal.
His link-up play with a teammate also failed to lead to an incisive Portugal’s move in the final third.
For a player of Ronaldo’s stature, these are appalling stats, especially after his inauspicious performances against Congo and Colombia, which even raised question marks about coach Roberto Martinez's decision to start him in every match.
Later, in the mixed zone when reporters asked him if the bottle remained half empty for him after his latest failure on the big stage, Ronaldo responded in his typical style by referring to himself in the third person and stating that winning the 2016 Euro was as big as winning a World Cup.
“Before Cristiano, Portugal had not won anything. The Euros was the most important. For me, 2016 has the same dimension as a World Cup, honestly,” he said.
But deep down, Ronaldo knows that a continental championship, no matter how good it is in terms of quality, can never come close to matching the magic of a World Cup.
This is where legends become immortals. This is the stage where Pele became a global phenomenon at 17, playing a starring role in Brazil’s first World Cup triumph in 1958.
The World Cup also elevated Diego Maradona to mythic status after his magical individual performances in 1986 earned Argentina its second World Cup title.
Remarkably, the World Cup never saw the true greatness of the Brazilian Ronaldo, who was a force of nature at club level before a serious knee injury threatened to end his career.
He recovered miraculously in time for the 2002 World Cup, scored eight goals, including two in the final, to script Brazil’s fifth World Cup triumph.
Ronaldo was superb in that tournament, but he never reached the heights of his pre-injury version at PSV Eindhoven, Barcelona and Inter Milan.
Without the World Cup trophy, though, his legacy would not have been the same.
This is where many pundits draw a parallel between the Brazilian Ronaldo and Messi. The Argentine was a shadow of the player he was in Barcelona when he led Argentina to their third World Cup triumph at Qatar 2022.
At 35, Messi lacked the pace and the explosive dribbling ability of yore, but it was his vision as a playmaker and the chemistry with his teammates that helped him conquer the final peak.
When he looks back on his journey, Ronaldo will certainly feel like what might have been.
Whether the World Cup is the final yardstick for a player to become the GOAT will remain a subject of intense debate.
Johan Cruyff, the Dutch maestro, lost the only World Cup final he ever played in, despite leading arguably the greatest international team of all time in 1974.
From a technical standpoint, there are old-timers who believe Real Madrid’s Argentine icon Alfredo di Stefano was an even better footballer than Pele, Maradona and Messi.
But Di Stefano never won the World Cup.
And it was Ronaldo who broke Di Stefano’s all-time goal-scoring record at Real Madrid.
The son of a kitman at a local Portuguese club, Andorinha, who struggled with an alcohol problem, Ronaldo had a difficult childhood.
At 12, when he was at the Sporting CP youth team in Lisbon, Ronaldo often went hungry and sometimes sneaked out of the hostel in the middle of the night to ask for leftover burgers at a nearby McDonald's.
That hunger shaped him as a footballer.
He may have failed in his final attempt to win the World Cup, but his greatness lies in his obsession with becoming better and the sacrifices he made every single day, which left even elite footballers in awe.
Rituraj Borkakoty is Sports Editor and has spent more than two decades writing on his sporting heroes. He also loves an underdog story, so if you have one, share it with him. He would love to bring it to life.