Cristiano Ronaldo will have the best World Cup of his career
The 2026 World Cup will be Cristiano Ronaldo’s last. The Portuguese forward is international football’s all-time leading scorer with 143 goals, ahead of Lionel Messi on 117, but things have never quite clicked for Ronaldo at World Cups. He has scored only eight goals across five tournaments.
Portugal result at the 2026 World Cup
In this article, we break down how the new World Cup format could help Cristiano bow out on a high and which Portugal bets are worth backing.
Tudo fixe? Tudo Fisht: Cristiano’s best World Cup numbers came in Russia
Remarkably, Cristiano has scored more than once at a World Cup finals only on one occasion. In 2018 in Russia, Ronaldo began with a hat-trick against Spain in the opening match at Sochi’s Fisht Stadium (3:3), then scored the decisive goal against Morocco in the next round (1:0). After that, Cristiano did not score again, while Portugal were knocked out by Uruguay in the round of 16 (1:2).
For one of the greatest goalscorers in football history, a player closing in on 1,000 career goals, a return of just eight goals across five World Cups looks underwhelming.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup stats (2006—2022)
|
World Cup |
Goals scored |
|
2022 |
1 |
|
2018 |
4 |
|
2014 |
1 |
|
2010 |
1 |
|
2006 |
1 |
It is no surprise that bookmakers are not convinced by the Portuguese forward’s Golden Boot chances. He is priced at
22/1
to win it.
His great rival Lionel Messi has 13 World Cup goals, five of them in the knockout rounds. Cristiano, by contrast, still has not scored in the elimination stages, although he has never left a World Cup without finding the net.
Instead of bringing his personal chef and relatives to the United States, he might have been better off taking a piece of turf from the Fisht Stadium with him. Who knows, perhaps three goals would then fly into DR Congo net.
Portugal vs DR Congo, 17 June
You won't get far in the knockout rounds with those flaws
One of the reasons Cristiano still has no goals in the decisive rounds is simple. Portugal have not gone beyond the quarter-finals. At the 2010 World Cup and the 2014 World Cup, the team went out in the round of 16, while in Qatar, where they reached the quarter-finals, Ronaldo started the knockout stage on the bench.
The national team’s breakout run came at the 2006 World Cup. They reached the semi-finals and finished fourth after losing to Germany in the third-place match (1:2). Cristiano played well throughout the tournament, both in the group stage, where he scored a penalty against Iran, and in the knockout rounds, where he again failed to get on the scoresheet.
But Ronaldo was a different player then. He was an explosive winger who could beat three men with his dribbling and create chances for his teammates. The goalscoring version of Cristiano had not yet been born in 2006.
From the 2010 World Cup onwards, when Cristiano became the player the team were built around, he has simply disappeared in the biggest games.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s World Cup knockout-stage metrics (2010 to 2022)
|
Metric |
2010 World Cup |
2018 World Cup |
2022 World Cup |
|
Matches |
1 |
1 |
2 |
|
Shots (on target) |
5 (2) |
6 (1) |
1 (0) |
|
Key passes |
0 |
1 |
0 |
|
Dribbles (successful) |
2 (0) |
6 (3) |
1 (0) |
|
Possession losses |
15 |
12 |
12 |
The World Cup in Qatar was the peak of Cristiano’s misfortune. There were rumours of discomfort, but it is easier to believe that Santos, before leaving the national team, went completely off script and benched the forward, something very few had dared to do before.
Ronaldo cannot do it? FIFA can help
FIFA is coming to Ronaldo’s aid: more matches, weaker opponents and an extra knockout round. Cristiano has everything in place to finally get closure and improve his World Cup numbers.
The 2026 World Cup looks like an excellent chance for Cristiano to set a new personal best for goals at the tournament. He has three group matches and, at the very least, several knockout games at his disposal. There is little doubt that Portugal will top the group, with Colombia the only genuine rival.
Who will win Group K?
Looking at the knockout bracket, the Portuguese side have two possible routes:
First place in the group. That is ideal for padding the numbers against one of the teams finishing third in Groups D, E, I, J or L. In the case of Group D, however, that could be Paraguay, the United States or Turkey.
Second place. A game against the team finishing second in Group L. Most likely, that would be Croatia.
Penaldo after all? CR7 betting angles for the 2026 World Cup
Scoring from the penalty spot is not as easy as it looks, but Cristiano is a maestro in that department. At the last three World Cups, the Portuguese forward has converted penalties with confidence. In Russia and Qatar, that happened on the national team’s first matchday. Another spot kick against DR Congo would be no surprise.
Portugal vs DR Congo, 17 June
Cristiano has been given a modest goals total of 2.5. Before the start of the World Cup, similar output was expected from Kai Havertz, who scored twice against Curaçao, James Rodríguez and Ousmane Dembélé.
The Portuguese forward can convert his routine penalty and score against Uzbekistan. If the national team win the group, he may finally come up with a goal in the knockout rounds.
It is also worth remembering that this will be Ronaldo’s final major tournament. Everything points towards Cristiano improving his numbers in America:
-
His teammates will look for him in the penalty area, while Bruno is expected to be the chief provider. He leads the betting to finish as the top assist maker at the 2026 World Cup at 16/1
-
Martínez will not leave the striker on the bench if he wants to keep working with the national team.
-
Ramos has not impressed up front: 12 goals in 45 matches and six goals across 30 Ligue 1 rounds is far too weak a return to compete with Ronaldo.
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