India, July 7 -- Cristiano Ronaldo's World Cup story ended without the trophy he chased longer than almost anyone else in football history. Portugal's 1-0 defeat to Spain in the Round of 16 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup brought down the curtain on his tournament journey, after the forward had already confirmed that this would be his final appearance on football's biggest stage.

He leaves the World Cup with 11 goals across six editions, a tally that does not fully capture either the scale of his longevity or the strange incompleteness of his relationship with the tournament. Ronaldo scored in 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, 2022 and 2026, becoming the first player to score at six different World Cups. Yet the trophy itself never came. His goals inst...