End beckons again for Ronaldo after Portugal's Euro knockout

Time is up again for Portugals ageing superstar Cristiano Ronaldo after an inglorious Euro 2024 exit atOptions key d0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7 format iframe height 90 width 728 params France ousted the 2016 winners 53 on penalties after a goalless Euro 2024 quarterfinal in Hamburg on Friday and Ronaldo was ineffectual at best damaging to his own sides aspirations at worst In the 2022 World Cup when former coach Fernando Santos dropped Ronaldo to the bench for the teams 61 demolition of Switzerland a bright Portugal future shimmered on the horizon However his successor Roberto Martinez has backed the 39yearold now playing in Saudi Arabia at AlNassr to the hilt and beyond Maintaining the former Real Madrid and Manchester United forward as their figurehead Portugal swept through Euros qualification with a 100 percent record and were among the favourites in Germany However they have badly underperformed with Ronaldo failing to find the net in five appearances this summer The striker is without a goal in his last nine major tournament matches Despite boasting strong options to replace him including Liverpools Diogo Jota and Paris SaintGermains Goncalo Ramos Martinez refused to take Ronaldo off against France Didier Deschamps substituted Les Bleus icon Kylian Mbappe as he struggled to make an impact but Ronaldo remained even as the game passed him by In the last 16 win over Slovenia Ronaldo missed a penalty in extratime and burst into tears a distracting sideshow but Martinez praised the forwards emotional reaction after the game as a sign of his passion However many suspect those tears were not for Portugal but for himself as he failed to break the record for the oldest player ever to score at a European Championship Ronaldo also ended his run of scoring at every major international tournament he has competed in and could not extend his record of 14 Euros goals He took 23 shots without success in Germany and perhaps the most damning was a glittering opportunity in extratime against France Spritely winger Francisco Conceicao cut the ball back to the forward a few yards out from goal but somehow he fired his teams clearest chance high over the bar It was the kind of chance that Ronaldo has dispatched a hundred times in his careerAlso Read Watch these titansRonaldos presence heavily conditions the way Portugal plays His teammates including creative geniuses Bruno Fernandes and Bernardo Silva often resort to crosses to try and find him Ronaldo no longer has the pace to consistently break in behind the defence limiting the passing options of the teams playmakers Martinez not only did not seem powerful enough to leave Ronaldo out of his plans altogether but could not even bring himself to substitute the forward at the tournament except for in the shock 20 defeat by Georgia Ronaldo started that match even though Portugal were guaranteed to win the group while virtually every other regular was rested atOptions key d0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7 format iframe height 90 width 728 params The coach said after elimination by France that no decision had been made over Ronaldos future at international level We just finished the game everything is still too raw were suffering a defeat as a team theres no individual decisions at this point Martinez told reporters One of the reasons the Spanish coach may not feel powerful enough to cut the cord is the cult of Cristiano which is evident among the teams supporters Adults stalked the streets of Frankfurt Leipzig and Berlin this summer relentlessly yelling Ronaldos Siiiiiuuuu celebration for hours on end To attend a Portugal match is to swim in a sea of maroon Ronaldo 7 shirts with some fans wearing masks of their talismans face Even opposition fans come to watch the Ronaldo circus though there is more sulking and pouting than goals now Our fans mostly wanted to see Ronaldo thats why they flocked to the match noted Slovenia midfielder Adam Gnezda Cerin of a March friendly in which they beat Ronaldo and Portugal 20 Although at the Euros they were eventually eliminated by Portugal on penalties they exposed Ronaldos inadequacies once more at this level and France finished the job Ronaldo admitted these will be his last Euros but as Portugal now turn their attention to the 2026 World Cup their chances will surely be magnified without the preening pastit hitmanWith agency inputs