Teddy Sheringham on Cristiano Ronaldo's Potential to Play Until 50
Teddy Sheringham has seen footballers cling on too long. He was one of the rare ones who stretched his own career with intelligence and discipline. So when he says Cristiano Ronaldo could keep playing until 50, he is not chasing headlines. He is speaking as a man who understands what it takes to fight time and still win.
The former England striker, now 58, has watched Ronaldo at 41 and sees a body that looks closer to its late 20s than its early 40s. The Al-Nassr forward’s obsession with preparation has become part of football folklore: the strict diet, the cryotherapy, the individual conditioning team that has worked with him for more than a decade. Sheringham looks at all of that and sees a player built to defy the usual rules.
“Could Cristiano Ronaldo play into his 50s at this rate? It wouldn’t surprise me when you look at his body at 41. He’s still as fit as a fiddle,” Sheringham told BOYLE Sports.
The detail that catches the ear is not just the praise, but the context: “He’s had his own training team for the past 15 years to keep him in tip top shape and as long as he still has the desire then he will keep going, but it’s tough when you get to that age, getting out of bed every day to go and do your training.”
That last line is where Sheringham’s own experience bleeds through. The grind. The mornings when the body protests and the mind has to win the argument. Most elite players never get that far. They are done by their mid-30s, the legs gone, the hunger dulled, the game too quick. Ronaldo is the outlier, still scoring freely in Saudi Arabia, still preparing to lead Portugal at the 2026 World Cup in North America, still treating every season as another mountain to climb.
This is not a man winding down. It is a man adjusting the arena.
Sheringham recognises that shift. “I’m sure he still loves what he’s doing and he’s playing in a league that’s obviously not as strong as other competitions around the world,” he said. The key point comes next. “But if you’re still scoring goals and people still want you to play, then why not keep going. He has an air of invincibility around him, and he’s got the body as well and the fitness, so I think we’ve got plenty of years of Ronaldo to come yet.”
Plenty of years. From a player already into his fifth decade, that is a remarkable assessment. Yet it aligns with what we see: a five-time Ballon d'Or winner still treating every game in the Saudi Pro League as a platform, not a pension.
What Sheringham does not see, though, is a return to the old stage.
The romance of a final European chapter, the idea of Ronaldo walking back into the Bernabéu to play for Real Madrid under Jose Mourinho again, lingers in the minds of supporters. Sheringham cuts through that nostalgia. “Can I see Cristiano Ronaldo coming back to Real Madrid to play under Jose Mourinho again? Definitely not. He will not be coming back to Europe,” he said, blunt and certain.
The trophies have already been collected there: Champions League glory, domestic titles in England, Spain and Italy. The European story feels complete, and Sheringham points to the reality of modern football – the tactical demands, the financial structures, the relentless physical intensity – as the barrier to any late-career encore at the very top.
If there is to be one last move, he believes it lies in a different direction.
“He might go to America though if he wants to experience something else,” Sheringham suggested. That possibility instantly sparks the imagination. Ronaldo joining Lionel Messi in MLS would be more than a transfer; it would be an event. “You could see that, and he’d certainly light MLS up like no one else can. Maybe it will all come down to what he wants to do once he finally does retire.”
That is the crux now. Ronaldo’s future is no longer dictated by what his body can handle in a conventional sense. His fitness, his professionalism, his almost ruthless self-care have given him options that very few footballers have ever had at this age. The question is no longer “Can he?” but “What does he want?”
For the moment, his focus remains fixed on Saudi Arabia and on the World Cup ahead. Portugal open their 2026 campaign on Wednesday against DR Congo in Group K, with Ronaldo still at the centre of everything – a 41-year-old captain expected to lead, to score, to drag his country deep into the tournament one more time.
Once, the idea of a 50-year-old forward competing professionally at any meaningful level would have been dismissed as fantasy. With Ronaldo, Sheringham is no longer so sure. And if one of the game’s great late bloomers believes the clock can be stretched that far, how long will Ronaldo keep pushing it?
