He has spent his whole life being measured against European football’s greatest goalscorer. Now Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. has taken his biggest step yet.
The 16-year-old has been called up to Portugal’s U17 squad for the first time, and will face Andorra on November 11 and Serbia on November 14. And the timing is hard to ignore.
The famous No. 7 shirt Ronaldo Sr wore for two decades will now be vacant after he announced his retirement from international football on Thursday.
It’s a heavy shirt for anyone to inherit. Luis Figo graced the number when he led Portugal’s golden generation to the 2006 World Cup semi-finals, and Ronaldo Sr himself carried it when he captained them to the European Championship in 2016. Both won the Ballon d’Or and are two of the most tantalising players the nation has ever produced.
Portugal’s power vacuum is also a pressure point. As the son of the man who wore that shirt, Ronaldo Jr. will attract more attention, and more expectation.
The national team lacks its vocal point, and few names carry more weight than his. He is the natural successor in marketing terms, if nothing else. Whether he is the player to take it is another matter.
Cristiano Ronaldo Jr – son of the Portuguese great – is looking to forge his own football career
This week the 16-year-old earned his first call-up to Portugal’s U17 team
The weight of his father’s expectations has been there from the start. Ronaldo Jr once floated the idea of becoming a goalkeeper, and his father’s reaction was swift. “No, I don’t want that! Are you joking or what?” Ronaldo Sr responds in the 2015 documentary Ronaldo.
Up front for the Juventus academy, his record would make the man chasing 1,000 career goals jealous: a staggering 58 goals in 23 games for the Under-9s. Yet his father was never satisfied. Asked at the 2020 Globe Soccer Awards, with his son sitting in the audience, whether the boy had what it takes to reach the top, Ronaldo Sr’s answer was blunt.
“Not yet,” he said. “I’m hard with him sometimes because he drinks Coca-Cola and Fanta. (He has) chips and fries; I fight with him.”
Hard data on his youth career since then is limited. Reports of his interest in switching to the Real Madrid academy suggested a desire to develop and compete.
Rio Ferdinand, who played alongside Ronaldo Sr. at Manchester United, has seen that competitive streak in the son on the padel court.
“I was in the Red Sea a couple of days ago; I play padel every day. (When) me and Cristiano Jr. get mad, we don’t speak for like two days.” He exclaimed on Five Presents. Like his father, he doesn’t take losing well.
His body, though, has settled the question of position. At 6 ft 3 in, he already stands taller than his father. Growth spurts may temporarily cost him some of the pace and the effortless coordination of his youth. A forced adaption of his style is not unusual: Ronaldo’s former teammates Gareth Bale and Scott McTominay were both moved into new positions to begin their professional careers.
It is also a path his father walked. Forget stepovers, flicks and trademark ‘Ronaldo chop’. Jr’s game is currently closer to the Ronaldo of Juventus and the Old Trafford return: a penalty-box predator who lives on timing and movement rather than dribbling past defenders.
The young striker has represented the youth academies of Man United, Real Madrid and Juventus
But his ultra-professional father said his son needs to cut out the Coca-Cola if he wants to make it at the top level
His Portugal numbers are respectable, not remarkable. Five goals in 13 appearances is a decent return, but he has played just 522 minutes, an average of around 40 per game, and scored roughly once every 104 minutes. However, it is a tiny sample size.
To reach the top, he will need the work ethic his father is famous for. “I’ve never seen a more professional person,” Paul Scholes, Ronaldo Sr’s former Manchester United teammate, told Premier League Productions. “He was out there all day long, practising … he had weights on his ankles.”
Habits like that are built in demanding environments, and Jr’s has been a gentle one.
Playing in Saudi Arabia still has its positives. As Jr. transitions from boy to man, weaker opposition has given him room to grow into his body and build confidence as he prepares for men’s senior football. But that breathing space has a shelf life.
He has options. He could stay and share a dressing room with his father, or return to one of the academies of Ronaldo Sr’s former clubs, with Real Madrid, Juventus and Manchester United all reported by The Sun to be interested. He has the name, the call-up and the options, but not yet the proof.
When Ronaldo Sr walked away from Portugal, he left behind a shirt, a record and a question. Saudi Arabia cannot give his son the answer. If he wants international caps and Champions League football, he must leave Al Nassr and his old man for a stage where nobody gives him an inch.
The surname opened the door. Only he can walk through it.
