Cristiano Ronaldo is a man on a mission to break all the myths about the longevity of a footballer’s career. Despite being 39, he is showing zero signs of slowing down.
Ronaldo is still adamant about playing every minute of every single match for Al Nassr and the Portugal national team. But it appears that his body might be sending warning signs seeing the recent look at the state of his feet.
Ronaldo has been playing top-level competition football for over two decades now. After finding his initial breakthrough at Sporting CP, Ronaldo joined Manchester United in 2003. The rest, as they say is history.
He’s now scored 879 career goals, over 50 more than Lionel Messi. Ronaldo has also played over 1200 games for club and country, but everything comes at a price.
There is a reason why the average footballer opts to retire in their mid-30s. The beautiful game is taxing and gets even worse when injuries catch up. With the football schedule becoming more and more demanding in the modern era, it’s a rather miracle that Ronaldo is still going strong at 39.
Cristiano recently posted a picture that gives an indication of how straining his lifestyle can be and shut up those who feel that footballers ‘have it easy’.
Cristiano Ronaldo Gives Glimpse Of Disproportionate Feet
Ronaldo has been picked as part of the Portugal national team for their upcoming matches in March. But before joining his teammates, he seems to have taken some time off to heal himself. He posted a picture of himself just relaxing near a pool and tagged his ‘Erakulis’ brand.
But something that really caught the eye of fans were the worrisome state of Ronaldo’s feet in the picture.
22 years of pro footy man look at his feet.. he wakes up with crazy pain everyday for sure pic.twitter.com/UmNXAISTKp
His feet do not at all look ‘normal’ or something you would expect from an everyday person. Cristiano’s feet appear to be actually quite swollen or inflated, especially the left feet’s shape looking quite bad.
His toes are abnormally puffed up and do not look in comfort at all. A lot of supporters have sympathized with the Portuguese icon, in terms of how much pain he must be able to endure to play with his feet in this kind of a state.
Some have even compared Ronaldo’s condition with that of NBA icon Lebron James. King James has had issues with his feet too, with some pictures of him bare-footed showing the abnormal disfiguration of his feet and how out-of-shape his toes have become.
While Ronaldo might only just give a glimpse at his feet’s condition, his teammates have known about it for some time.
Weston McKennie, who played with Cristiano at Juventus, had revealed after joining Leeds United in 2023 how shocked he was to see Ronaldo’s feet in a terrible state during their days together in Turin.
McKennie admitted that he told the Portuguese maestro that his feet’s condition looked ‘terrible’. To this, Ronaldo had replied that they are worth 1 billion euros (£855 million). Ronaldo left Juventus in 2021 and it doesn’t seem he’s done much to improve his situation.
What Could’ve Caused Ronaldo’s Swollen Feet?
It’s not like Ronaldo’s feet are in this kind of shape due to an injury he’s recovering from. He hasn’t suffered any injury setback for Al Nassr recently. In fact, the 39-year-old played the entire 90 minutes and scored the winner against Al-Ahli in the final Saudi Pro League game before the international break.
This state of Ronaldo’s feet is more to do with the wear and tear of a 22+ year professional career.
Apart from the off-season, Cristiano is out there training or playing football matches for close to 10-11 months a year for the past decade. He runs a lot during these occasions and that is probably a reason why his feet are in this condition.
Ronaldo is not just a footballer but puts in as much effort in covering ground as any other top-level athlete/sportsperson. As per Pediatry Care Specialists, ‘A Runners’ feet may swell both during and after runs for a number of reasons.’
A major reason behind this is because of the possibility of wearing tight and restrictive shoes. This often causes one’s heels and toes to get squeezed, causing the muscles in the feet to get overwhelmed and the foot to get swollen.
Another prominent reason for this shape of his feet is because of how often he’s kicking footballs. Ronaldo wouldn’t have scored over 850 career goals if he didn’t practice like a maniac on his shooting or finishing. Be it barefoot or wearing boots, he’s repeatedly kicking footballs everyday and this can damage one’s foot.
Orthopaedic surgeon Simon Moyes explains this as: “Repetitive kicking, bending or stretching your foot can cause soft tissues in your ankle to catch and become pinched, making them swollen, inflamed and thickened.”
Ronaldo might be a super-athlete whose physical state is far better than people half his age, but the human body can only take so much.
In a recent event, Cristiano’s partner Georgina Rodriguez hinted that he will probably hang up his boots in a year or maximum two. Seeing the deteriorating condition of his feet, he should probably stick to that so as to not cause irreparable long-term damage to his feet.
