Cristiano Ronaldo turns 42 in February. He’s still making elite goalkeepers lose sleep. Spain’s Unai Simon, fresh off setting a World Cup record of 519 minutes without conceding, went out of his way on July 3 to warn his defensive line about one thing: do not let Ronaldo get comfortable inside the penalty area.

The goalkeeper’s scouting report

Simon’s assessment was surgical. He acknowledged that Ronaldo’s game has evolved over the years, that the days of blistering counter-attacks and stepover sequences have faded. But the core product, the thing that makes Ronaldo uniquely dangerous, hasn’t changed.

His first touch inside the box is still elite. He only needs “that one moment” to score, according to Simon.

For context, Simon’s 519-minute shutout streak at this World Cup is not a trivial stat. It means he’s gone more than five full matches without letting a single ball past him. And yet here he is, publicly telling his center-backs to treat a 41-year-old forward like a live grenade.

The economics of sporting immortality

Ronaldo himself launched NFT collections with Binance back in 2022 and 2023, leveraging his global reach to onboard fans into digital collectibles. The results were mixed, as most celebrity NFT projects were, but the underlying thesis was sound: Ronaldo’s attention footprint is massive, and any platform that can capture even a fraction of it gains disproportionate visibility.

His continued elite-level performance at 41 matters for that thesis. A retired Ronaldo selling NFTs is a celebrity endorsement. An active Ronaldo, one that opposing goalkeepers are still game-planning around at the World Cup, is something fundamentally different. He’s a living, performing asset whose on-field credibility reinforces his off-field commercial power.