Cristiano Ronaldo, five-time Ballon d’Or winner, is one of the fittest athletes of all-time and his goal-scoring ability at 39 remains a testament to that.
He has scored 10 goals in 12 appearances for Al-Nassr in the ongoing Saudi Pro League while chasing the impossible 1000 career goal-mark.
His work-ethics has been one of the core reasons for his longevity and London 2012 men’s hurdles sprinter Jorge Paul, a Portugal native himself, has witnessed it closely.
“When Ronaldo was at Sporting, I would often finish training and watch the athletics training sessions, and Francis training, because it’s not every day that we have the privilege of seeing one of the fastest men in the world. And taking this opportunity to talk about Cristiano, I’ll also tell you a little story,” Paul said in an interview to abola.pt
“The Jamor High Performance Centre, where we are based, has a common area, a physiotherapy area and a gym, and there was no football stadium at the time. So, the national team athletes would train in the main stadium and some players would then recover in the gym. We were amazed when we were training there and saw Bruno Alves, Quaresma, Cédric and Cristiano arrive, there were about 7 or 8 players. We were delighted.
“One of the things that impressed me and made me really see the difference between Cristiano Ronaldo and the others was this: on the first day there were seven players, on the second day there were five, on the third day there were two, and then it was just Cristiano,” he added.
Paul, who is of the Cape Verdean descent, also said that the Portuguese talisman could have been a good track & field athlete.
“Cristiano is very competitive and very fast, but I would mainly talk about his jumping ability, that is, he would be very good at jumping, as well as his speed,” he said.
“Maybe I wouldn’t say so much about the 100 meters, because he is more explosive and reactive at the start, but maybe for a 60-meter race… it would be a good challenge,” the 40-year-old added.