Roberto Martínez, the manager of the Portuguese National Team, has received a cautionary note about this summer’s European Championships: in order to win the tournament, he’ll need to bench longtime star Cristiano Ronaldo. Despite being 39 years old, Ronaldo continues to serve as Portugal’s captain and contributed significantly to their qualification campaign.
Under Martínez’s leadership, Portugal achieved a rare feat, becoming just the eighth team ever to win all their matches in European Championship qualifying. During Portugal’s impressive run of 10/10 consecutive victories, Ronaldo tallied 10 goals, second only to Belgium’s Romelu Lukaku during qualifying.
Yet, Martínez is under pressure to exclude Ronaldo from the tournament. Frank Leboeuf, who won the 1998 World Cup and 2000 Euros while playing for France, argues that Portugal’s chances of contending for the title in Germany this summer would be better if Ronaldo were left off the squad entirely.