Thierry Henry leads criticism of Cristiano Ronaldo after Portugal’s disappointing draw
“It makes no sense to get the best goal scorer in world football out in a game that you need goals,” said Roberto Martinez when asked why he chose to keep Cristiano Ronaldo on the pitch.
Technically, Martinez is right. Ronaldo has scored more goals than anyone on the planet but Romario is fourth on that list and no one is suggesting he should be starting up front for Brazil.
Considering many of their players made up the backbone of the all-conquering PSG side plus they have a Bruno Fernandes who had just broken a Premier League record held by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne, Portugal entered the 2026 World Cup as one of the favourites to win it.
But all of those projections came with a caveat that has proven true even after one game – only if Ronaldo would not get in the way.
Considering Lionel Messi had scored a hat trick the day before, any chance of Ronaldo not being in the starting lineup evaporated but Martinez’s decision to allow him to play the full 90 minutes proves who is running things.
Ronaldo had 25 touches in Portugal’s 1-1 draw with DR Congo, the fewest of any starting Portuguese player. You can argue that a forward would naturally touch the ball less than his opponents but Yoane Wissa touched it 35 times. Rafael Leao, who came on in the 72nd minute, touched it 14 times.
Ronaldo had the most shots and yet not a single one on target. Francisco Conceicao had as many touches in the box as him despite coming on at half-time. When Ronaldo scuffed one of his three shots off target, Bruno Fernandes could be seen putting his head in his hands behind him.
All of this and yet when Portugal needed a goal, Martinez abandoned the team’s shape to swap out Vitinha for Goncalo Ramos rather than take the ineffective Ronaldo off.
No wonder then that Ronaldo has come in for a bashing from the world’s media.
Chief amongst them is Thierry Henry who highlighted Ronaldo’s selfishness and told him it was about the team scoring, not him.
“One thing that’s important, people, please at home,” he said on Fox. “The team needs to score, not you need to score.”
Henry highlighted where that mindset went wrong for Ronaldo in a specific clip that showed a ball being cut back for someone else.
“We’re going to see here Portugal being on the ball, Cancelo is going to receive the ball. Cristiano Ronaldo has been in this situation multiple times. If you make that run here, you – you make the defender take a decision to crash the six-yard box.
“But because he wants to score, he goes into the path of Bruno Fernandes. If he goes into that six-yard box, you would have had to follow him and then he would have been a tap-in for Bruno Fernandes.
“But because he wants to score, he goes into the path of the back pass. You see both players, and it’s easier for you to defend.”
Chris Sutton, who was commentating on the game for the BBC, said Martinez was “scared” of taking the underwhelming forward off.
“That’s embarrassing from Martinez. It might work but are we all watching a different game?” Sutton said as Vitinha was substituted.
“He’s scared to take him off. He’s not the manager. He may end up scoring the winner but the game has passed him by today.”
Kevin-Prince Boateng went as far as to say Ronaldo should step down and let younger players shine.
“Can I be honest?” he asked on SBS Sport. “Ronaldo, if he would be a real team player, he would step down and let the young players flow. Because Portugal is a better side without him.
“There’s so much pressure when he’s in the middle, because they all want to play the ball to him. I get that, I understand that.
“But if Portugal wants to have a chance to go far, I believe Ronaldo should step down. Let the others play and come in for the last 15 to 20 minutes.”
Wayne Rooney, who has proven himself to usually be a good pundit, meanwhile defended his old teammate suggesting that his lack of runs was not a sign of laziness.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is very often standing in an offside position, but that’s not him being lazy, he is actually being very clever,” Rooney said on the BBC. “It means that Congo constantly has to search for him.
“And when they search for him, he automatically creates space for his teammates.
The man himself posted on Instagram: “It wasn’t the start we wanted, but this is far from over. Head up and focus on the next game.”
Presumably safe in the knowledge that he will be starting yet again.
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