Paul Scholes on Ronaldo's Role in Portugal's World Cup Performance

Paul Scholes believes Cristiano Ronaldo has drifted from talisman to tactical problem for Portugal, arguing it is “not right” that the 41-year-old is still leading the line at a World Cup.

Ronaldo, captaining his country in their opening group game against DR Congo in Houston, made history by matching Lionel Messi’s feat of appearing at six different World Cups. The landmark, though, arrived on a night when the veteran forward barely left a footprint on the game.

Portugal, reigning 2025 Nations League champions and widely tipped as serious contenders alongside France, Spain, England and holders Argentina, started like a side ready to justify the hype. Joao Neves struck in the sixth minute, an early goal that should have opened the floodgates for a team overflowing with technical quality.

Instead, the performance stalled.

Roberto Martinez’s side controlled the ball, pinned DR Congo back and dictated territory, but the dominance never translated into chances. The pressure built, the patterns of play were neat, yet the cutting edge was missing.

Then came the punch in the gut.

Against the run of play, Newcastle forward Yoane Wissa levelled just before half-time, punishing Portugal’s wastefulness and sending the sides in at the break tied. Portugal never found a winner, the game drifting to a draw that felt more like a warning than a mere setback.

At the centre of it all, or perhaps more accurately on the fringes of it, stood Ronaldo.

Across a dismal first half, he did not create a chance, did not take a shot, did not complete a successful dribble, did not win a single duel. For a player whose career has been built on bending games to his will, this was the quietest of nights.

Martinez, though, refused to take him off. Pedro Neto came and went. Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, Tomas Araujo and Nuno Mendes all made way. Ronaldo stayed, armband on, right to the final whistle.

For Scholes, watching on and speaking on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast, that decision cuts to the heart of Portugal’s dilemma.

“I believe it’s challenging for the manager,” the former England and Manchester United midfielder said. He revealed he had already put the question directly to Martinez off-camera during a Stick to Football recording: “Is he a problem for you?”

Scholes is convinced the issue is no longer just about sentiment or status, but about the basic demands of elite football.

“At 41 years of age… I believe there is only one position on the field where a player of that age should be starting, and that is as a goalkeeper, in my opinion.

“Now look, he is going to score goals and he’s in a team that have a lot of possession, but once there’s a game where it has to be transition… and there will be games like that. His movement at 41 years of age…”

The contrast is stark for Scholes, who shared a dressing room with Ronaldo for six years at Old Trafford and saw first-hand the explosive winger who terrorised defences. The Ronaldo of 2026 still carries an aura, still commands a dressing room, still obsesses over goals. The legs, though, tell a different story.

Scholes insists he “feels sorry” for Martinez, caught between the weight of Ronaldo’s legacy and the cold logic of modern tactics.

“The trouble with Portugal is they haven’t really got an outstanding centre-forward anyway, have they? You’ve got to have somebody who runs,” he said.

“For me, he has to be a player for the last 15 minutes. For a 40 or 41-year-old to be playing centre-forward, I just don’t get it.

You might get away with it at centre-half, you might do in a team that keeps the ball and you probably get away with it as a goalkeeper, but as a centre-forward at 41… it’s not right.”

Scholes pointed to Croatia’s use of Luka Modric, now 40, as another example of a great player stretched to the limit of what his position demands.

“We saw it with Croatia and Luka Modric last night at 40 years old. Central midfield at 40…”

The psychological battle, he believes, is raging inside Ronaldo as well. The old rivalries still burn.

“Cristiano will be so pissed off because Lionel Messi got a hat-trick, Kylian Mbappe got two… it will be killing him.”

That competitive fire is exactly what made Ronaldo a five-time Ballon d’Or winner and one of the greatest goalscorers in history. It is also what makes Martinez’s job so delicate. Bench him and you risk a storm. Start him and, in Scholes’ view, you blunt the team.

“I feel sorry for Martinez because he’s trying to embrace it and he’s saying, ‘No, I’ve got the best goalscorer in the world’, but deep down he must know that’s hurting his team.”

Portugal still have the talent to go deep into this tournament. The question now is whether Martinez has the courage to reshape his attack around the present, not the past, while one of football’s most relentless winners stares down the end of the biggest stage of all.