(Reuters) – Portugal forward Cristiano Ronaldo believes his country has an excellent group of players and they are capable of doing well in the World Cup in Qatar.
Ronaldo said he had dreamt of wining the World Cup, but knows it will be extremely difficult to lift the trophy with teams like France, Spain, Argentina, Germany and Brazil to face.
“I am very optimistic. We have a fantastic coach, we have a good generation of football players. I’m looking forward that we’re going to an amazing World Cup,” Ronaldo told Piers Morgan for TalkTV.
“It’s gonna be tough. Extremely difficult. But everything is possible, of course we’re gonna compete.”
The 37-year-old added that Qatar would probably be his last World Cup as he plans to retire at 40.
“I want to play two, three more years maximum. I want to finish with 40, it will be a good age. But I don’t know. Sometimes you plan one thing for your life and as I told many times, life is dynamic,” Ronaldo said.
Portugal’s captain also talked about Argentina’s Lionel Messi, describing him as “magic, top and like a team mate” after sharing the global stage with him for 16 years.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City, editing by Ed Osmond)
