Why does Ronaldo insist on tarnishing his legacy?

Ronaldo has admitted this season may be his last on a football pitch. Yet his actions tell a different story, particularly with the Portugal national team, where he insists on featuring to this day.

His refusal to retire before the season is over makes perfect sense. He needs only 21 goals to become the first player in football history to reach 1,000, a record "the Don" would never let slip through his hands.

He could have chased that landmark through Al-Nassr alone. In three complete seasons with "the Global" in the Roshn League, he has never scored fewer than 25 goals.

Throw in the AFC Champions League Elite, the King's Cup and the Saudi Super Cup, and the "Madeira Rocket" reaching the millennium is merely a matter of time, unless injuries have another say.

Portugal, then, were never part of the equation. Ronaldo did not need a single extra cap to reach his coveted goal.

Ronaldo justified staying on with the "Brazil of Europe" after their exit from the 2026 World Cup in the round of 16 against Spain. He wants to win the UEFA Nations League for a third time, having already lifted it in 2019 and 2025.

He didn't stop there. The Portuguese star tied that dream to another: reaching goal number 1000, handing it the same weight, even though everyone knows the two are nowhere near equal.

Call it a false dream. That doesn't necessarily mean Ronaldo is lying outright, showing one thing while hiding another. At the very least he is deluding himself, and then everyone else, with an unreal target that keeps him at international level.

A third Nations League title would be an achievement. It would not be a miracle. The miracle came long ago, when Ronaldo dragged Portugal to their first European crown, and perhaps their last for a very long time.

Two Nations League titles, qualification for every Euros and World Cup of his era: those are the miracles. Another Nations League trophy would add nothing significant to them. Worse still, "the Don" may lose something far more important along the way.

In recent years, Ronaldo has become fertile ground for suspicion, whether on the technical or moral level, on the pitch or off it.

Take his objection to a goal being awarded to Portugal at the 2022 World Cup in favour of team-mate Bruno Fernandes, and the rumours it stirred about tension between the pair, both before that moment and after it.

Then there was his implicit objection to team-mate Bernardo Silva being crowned best player of the 2019 UEFA Nations League. Moments like these laid bare the dominance of individual ambition over collective achievement.

João Neves fuelled it further with his comments about Ronaldo at the 2026 World Cup, and reports followed of friction between the two, as well as between Ronaldo and the rest of the "Brazil of Europe" players.

Some claimed Roberto Martínez refused to substitute him during the 2026 World Cup because he was set to take charge of him at Al-Nassr as successor to the Portuguese Jorge Jesus, before the choice settled on Ange Postecoglou.

Whispers grew that Ronaldo personally picked Jorge Jesus to lead the Portugal national team, having worked under him at Al-Nassr, ensuring he would lean on him in the period ahead.

True or not, all these rumours have chipped away at Ronaldo's history and placed a black mark on his pristine footballing record. Those marks will be hard to erase years later, especially as they sit so close to the final scene.