Paul Scholes on Cristiano Ronaldo's Role in Portugal's World Cup Challenge

Paul Scholes believes Cristiano Ronaldo has become a problem Portugal can no longer ignore.

The Manchester United great says it is “not right” that a 41-year-old Ronaldo is still leading the line for a side brimming with talent and tipped as one of the favourites for the World Cup.

A flat night for Portugal’s captain

Ronaldo made history by joining Lionel Messi on six World Cup appearances, captaining Portugal in their opening group game against DR Congo in Houston. The narrative should have written itself: the old master, one more tilt at the biggest prize, fronting a squad many see as the most complete of his international career.

Instead, it was a night that exposed the tension between reputation and reality.

Portugal started with authority. Joao Neves struck in the sixth minute, an early goal that seemed to signal a routine evening for Roberto Martinez’s side. They dominated the ball, dictated the tempo, and pushed DR Congo back.

Then the game drifted.

Yoane Wissa, so often a livewire for Newcastle, punished them just before half-time, finishing against the run of play to level the match. From there, Portugal never quite recovered their edge and had to settle for a draw that felt like a missed opportunity rather than an opening step from a contender.

For Ronaldo, it was worse than simply quiet. He did not create a chance. He did not take a shot. He did not complete a successful dribble or win a single duel in a first half that passed him by. The numbers painted the picture: a legend marooned, waiting for a game that never came to him.

Martinez, though, never reached for the hook. Ronaldo stayed on until the final whistle as Pedro Neto, Vitinha, Bernardo Silva, Tomas Araujo and Nuno Mendes all made way instead.

Scholes: “For a 41-year-old to be playing centre-forward, I just don’t get it”

Watching from afar, Scholes saw a manager trapped by the weight of a superstar’s legacy.

“I believe it’s challenging for the manager,” he said on The Good, The Bad & The Football podcast. The former England and Manchester United midfielder revealed he had already put the question directly to Martinez during a Stick to Football recording: is Ronaldo a problem?

Scholes did not hide his view.

“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.”

He acknowledged Ronaldo will still score goals, especially in a side that monopolises possession. But tournaments are not won on sterile domination alone.

“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…” Scholes trailed off, the implication clear: in the biggest matches, when the game breaks open and legs are tested, Portugal risk carrying their captain.

Scholes, who shared a dressing room with Ronaldo for six years at Old Trafford, said he “feels sorry” for Martinez, convinced the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is now better suited to a different role.

“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.”

He pointed to Luka Modric, now 40, as another example of a great whose presence in central midfield at that age raises the same tactical questions.

A squad built to run, anchored by a legend

Scholes’ criticism does not ignore Portugal’s wider issue: there is no undisputed, in-their-prime No. 9 to force the decision.

“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.

That lack of a clear alternative only deepens Martinez’s dilemma. On one side stands a generational finisher, still obsessed with numbers, still capable of decisive moments. On the other, a team built on energy, pressing and fluid movement, asked to bend around a 41-year-old focal point.

Scholes even suggested Ronaldo’s competitive fire will be raging as he watches his peers light up the tournament.

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

Martinez has repeatedly backed his captain, publicly framing him as “the best goalscorer in the world.” Scholes suspects the private calculation is far more complicated.

“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 will not be judged on a draw with DR Congo in Houston. Their tournament will be defined by what happens when the stakes rise, the spaces close and the running intensifies.

When that moment comes, Martinez will have to answer the question Scholes has already posed: is Cristiano Ronaldo still the solution, or has he quietly become the problem that decides Portugal’s World Cup fate?