There’s a reason why he broke the cap record too, it’s also because he doesn’t have the self awareness to go ‘hey, maybe it’s time to give the young players a shot’. He is such a massive figure in the game that his presence overwhelms teams and managers and it all circles around his orbit. That was fine when he was one of the best players in the world, but he’s nowhere near that.
He’s the Portugal equivalent of a good guest at a party but has stayed to 2am and won’t leave', everybody else is gone and the hosts are too polite to say anything.
Judging from another response about your post, I take it that you have a history of posting criticism of Ronaldo so obviously nothing is going to change your mind and that's fine as you're entitled to dislike or not rate whoever you choose.
But I'll just point out that Ronaldo scored 13 goals in 14 internationals in 2021, and 24 goals in the PL in the 2021/22 season. So was delivering the goods in the very recent past. That was followed by a poor 2022 - pretty much his first poor year in his entire career. But just because they haven't jettisoned a player with his record and experience after one poor season isn't wrong. As others have pointed out, manager's often have some older member's of the squad who provide the experience, leadership, winning mentality, etc. Including the likes of Pepe in the current set up who is even older.
You use the fact that he's still desperate to play for his country at 37/38 as a negative and a stick to beat him with - for every other player in the game to still have that eagerness, desire and hunger has been seen as nothing but a positive reflection on them. Maybe
you do criticise those other players who stlll look to keep themselves fit and maintain that hunger and desire late in their careers, in which case, while I disagree with you, you're at least not being hypocritical. However if, like most, you normally see it as a positive attribute in a player, then you may want to question your hypocrisy in the case of Ronaldo?
