Cristiano Ronaldo merely the latest example of a great player who couldn’t let go | Jonathan Wilson

There is no doubt his international career was an incredible one, but it would have been greater still if he had not lingered on the stage so long

Nothing, perhaps, is quite so difficult for an elite sportsman as timing their exit. It’s not easy for any person in any job to weigh the hope of having more to give with the desire not to linger beyond their usefulness, but it’s perhaps particularly hard for top athletes because unrealistic self-confidence is so essential to their success. It takes an almost unhealthy level of self-belief for anybody to make the sacrifices to get to the top, to dedicate themselves to such a precarious vocation, to overcome all the setbacks and injuries and failures. How can someone whose whole life has been spent assuring themselves there are no odds they cannot overcome accept that that is it, that the time has come to say goodbye?

The news that Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football brings with it, inevitably, a sadness. Sadness that we will no longer see him skipping past a defender, or burying a neck-thrusting header, and sadness in that the end of the career of any great is a reminder of mortality; all things in time must pass. But there is also a sadness that he timed his departure so badly. For at least three tournaments, there has been a sense of Ronaldo holding Portugal back.

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