{"id":30083,"date":"2026-07-03T07:16:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/cristiano-ronaldo-scripts-history-becomes-oldest-world-cup-knockout-goalscorer-as-portugal-beat-croatia-football-news\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T07:16:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T01:46:06","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-scripts-history-becomes-oldest-world-cup-knockout-goalscorer-as-portugal-beat-croatia-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/cristiano-ronaldo-scripts-history-becomes-oldest-world-cup-knockout-goalscorer-as-portugal-beat-croatia-football-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo scripts history, becomes oldest World Cup knockout goalscorer as Portugal beat Croatia | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-132150525,imgsize-245658,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/cristiano-ronaldo.jpg\" alt=\"Cristiano Ronaldo scripts history, becomes oldest World Cup knockout goalscorer as Portugal beat Croatia\" title=\"Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (7) celebrates after scoring their opening goal. (AP Photo)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo (7) celebrates after scoring their opening goal. (AP Photo)\">Portugal&#8217;s Cristiano Ronaldo (7) celebrates after scoring their opening goal. (AP Photo)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/cristiano-ronaldo\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Cristiano Ronaldo<\/a> added yet another remarkable chapter to his glittering career by becoming the oldest goalscorer in <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/fifa-world-cup\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">FIFA World Cup<\/a> knockout-stage history as Portugal edged Croatia 2-1 in a dramatic Round of 32 clash on Thursday.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>At 41 years and 147 days old, the Portugal captain converted a second-half penalty to rewrite the record books, surpassing <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/lionel-messi\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Lionel Messi<\/a> as the oldest player to score in the World Cup knockout rounds. It was also <!-- -->Ronaldo<!-- -->&#8216;s first-ever goal in the knockout stages of the FIFA World Cup, making the milestone even more significant.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Portugal sealed progression to Round of 16 despite a tense finish that included a disallowed Croatian goal.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>Ronaldo also became the second-oldest goalscorer in the history of the FIFA World Cup overall. <!-- -->Only Cameroon legend Roger Milla, who scored at 42 years and 39 days during the 1994 tournament, remains ahead of the Portuguese icon on the all-time list.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"21\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Ronaldo rewrites World Cup record books<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"23\"\/>Ronaldo&#8217;s historic strike was another reminder of his extraordinary longevity at the highest level. Already the oldest player to feature for Portugal at a World Cup, he now owns the record for the oldest player ever to score in a men&#8217;s FIFA World Cup knockout match.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/>The match also marked Ronaldo&#8217;s 26th World Cup appearance, taking him past numerous legendary names and leaving him just one behind Germany great Lothar Matth\u00e4us (27) on the all-time appearance list. Argentina captain Lionel Messi remains the record-holder with 29 World Cup matches.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>The 41-year-old&#8217;s latest heroics come amid continued speculation that the 2026 FIFA World Cup could be the final international tournament of his storied career. <!-- -->Although retirement rumours continue to swirl, Ronaldo remains under contract with Al Nassr through the 2026-27 season.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"32\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h2>Oldest outfield player to start a World Cup knockout match<br \/><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/>Ronaldo&#8217;s inclusion in Portugal&#8217;s starting XI also saw him set another landmark before a ball was even kicked.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/>At 41 years and 147 days, he became the oldest outfield player ever to start a men&#8217;s FIFA World Cup knockout match, overtaking the mark set just a day earlier by Bosnia and Herzegovina captain Edin Dzeko, who started against the United States at 40 years and 106 days.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"39\"\/>Croatia captain <!-- -->Luka Modric<!-- -->, aged 40 years and 296 days, also featured from the start, making it the first men&#8217;s FIFA World Cup match to feature two outfield players over the age of 40 on opposing sides.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"43\"\/>The updated list of the oldest outfield players to start a men&#8217;s World Cup knockout match now reads:<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"45\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"cdatainfo   id-r-component \" data-pos=\"46\">\n<ul>\n<li>Cristiano Ronaldo (<keyword id=\"37233714\" type=\"General\" weightage=\"20\" keywordseo=\"Portugal-vs-Croatia\" source=\"keywords\">Portugal vs Croatia<\/keyword>) \u2013 41 years, 147 days<\/li>\n<li> Luka Modric (Croatia vs Portugal) \u2013 40 years, 296 days<\/li>\n<li> Edin Dzeko (Bosnia and Herzegovina vs USA) \u2013 40 years, 106 days<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/football\/fifa-world-cup\/cristiano-ronaldo-scripts-history-becomes-oldest-world-cup-knockout-goalscorer-as-portugal-beat-croatia\/articleshow\/132150523.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Portugal&#8217;s Cristiano Ronaldo (7) celebrates after scoring their opening goal. (AP Photo) Cristiano Ronaldo added yet another remarkable chapter to his glittering career by becoming the oldest goalscorer in FIFA World Cup knockout-stage history as Portugal edged Croatia 2-1 in a dramatic Round of 32 clash on Thursday.At 41 years and 147 days old, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30084,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}