Record-breaking Cristiano Ronaldo ‘wants more’ with Portugal
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Ronaldo trains with the Portugese national team in Lisbon ahead of their Euro 2024 qualifiers against Slovakia and Luxembourg.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
LISBON – After becoming the first player to score 850 career goals, Portugal’s superstar striker Cristiano Ronaldo said on Wednesday that he wants to go “even further” in football with his Saudi club side Al-Nassr.
Pele is said to have scored over a thousand career goals but statistics site RSSSF said only 769 goals came in official matches.
“I want more,” the 38-year-old told a press conference before training with his national team at Oeiras, on the outskirts of Lisbon, ahead of upcoming European Championship qualifiers.
“As long as I play, I want to set the bar very high, I have to think big.”
Ronaldo marked his 200th international cap in June by scoring the only goal in Portugal’s victory over Iceland, which allowed Roberto Martinez’s men to stay top of Group J in Euro 2024 qualifying.
Ahead of this week’s fixtures, Portugal are one of four teams with a maximum 12 points from four games, along with Scotland, France and England.
But the Euro 2016 winners and 2022 World Cup quarter-finalists are the only ones among that quartet to have two September qualifiers and they can close in on securing a spot at the Finals in Germany.
On Friday, they will play Slovakia in Bratislava and Luxembourg three days later at the Algarve stadium in Portugal. Two wins would leave them on the brink of qualification given that the top two progress from a group also containing Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
“I really want to win these two matches. If we win, we will practically qualify,” added five-time Ballon d’Or winner Ronaldo, who was not nominated for the 2023 top award. He also marks his 20th anniversary in the national side in 2023, saying he was proud of this “longevity”.
“I want to continue, because I feel good and useful, but anything can happen,” he said, adding for now he wanted to enjoy the moment and set himself the goal of “having an excellent Euro”.
Asked about his rivalry with Argentina’s Lionel Messi, who has a World Cup win and two more Ballon d’Or titles, he replied that the two “respected each other” and he believes they have “changed the history of football”.
Meanwhile, Portugal coach Martinez has also praised his talisman, who has five goals in four qualifying games so far.
“A player with 200 appearances, that’s something unique,” he said.
However, there was still some criticism over his selection of attackers for this round of fixtures. A section of the media believed that Sporting Lisbon’s Paulinho, who has had a fiery start to the season in the Portuguese top flight with four goals in four games, deserved a chance.
Martinez insisted that Ronaldo and Paris Saint-Germain star Goncalo Ramos are still ahead in the pecking order.
“I really like the start of Paulinho’s season, I think he is quite a player, a finisher,” the coach said.
“But now we have two spearheads, Cristiano and Goncalo. Competitiveness at this top level makes it very difficult (for others) to have an opportunity.” AFP
