Following in the footsteps of Eric Cantona?
There is hardly anything left for Cristiano Ronaldo to achieve. He has won an international trophy, multiple Champions Leagues, as well as league titles in Spain and England, becoming Real Madrid’s all-time leading goalscorer in the process.
He has three years left on his contract at Real Madrid, and will probably continue playing beyond the age of 35, whether that be at the Bernabeu, back at Sporting Club in Lisbon where his career began, or somewhere else for one last paycheque before retirement.
The 32-year-old’s dedication to maintaining himself as peak physical fitness is a testament to his work-ethic and has allowed him to continue to score goals at an unbelievable rate beyond his peak years. He’ll continue to play football for a few more years but he has already started planning ahead for his retirement.
Speaking to Sky Italia, he revealed that:
“People sometimes speak about age – sometimes I do not agree because you have younger players who always have injuries or do not take of their body. I am focused right now because my football career will finish one day – we all have to retire one day. I know that day will come. But right now, I am enjoying the moment. When I am retired, I think I will have a good life. I don’t say that because of money.”
A lot of footballers go into punditry and media work in their retirement, but the Portuguese sees himself on screen in a different capacity after retiring from football:
“I want to try other things; for example, to do movies.”
This isn’t an ambition he has dreamed up overnight either. Ronaldo has been planning his future in great detail for a long time, he explained:
“I started to plan my future when I was 27, 28 – a long time ago, I began preparing. I have a good team, who work in my company, who start to build good things going forward. In football, I am very calm because I know they depend on me.”
Other footballers to make the jump to acting include Vinnie Jones and Eric Cantona, both of whom possess a bit more charisma than Cristiano, who isn’t exactly camera shy but his talent definitely lies more in his feet than his acting.
But he clearly fancies himself as a Hollywood star, as he showed in this Freaky Friday inspired Nike advert, ‘The Switch‘ as well as starring in his biopic, ‘Ronaldo‘, released in 2015.
