Cristiano Ronaldo is as good at his job as anyone has ever been at anything. But in life, as we all know, there’s no lucky breaks — you simply reap what you sow.
Ronaldo reached the zenith of soccer at the young age of 19. By 23, he was already winning awards for being the best player in the sport. Now, at 39, he remains spry and is still playing with the target of hitting 1,000 goals. For those keeping count, at the time of writing, Cristiano Ronaldo has reached 907 goals. But what is his secret? Is there a secret? Well, if there is, he’s doing a pretty bad job at keeping it.
Ronaldo famously lives a very clean life. He works out constantly, keeps a strict diet, and, on top of a teetotaler lifestyle, doesn’t even drink soda. Famously, at the Euros Championship, while representing his country, he was conducting a press conference and saw two bottles of soda. He pushed them off the frame and lifted up a bottle of water.
Recently, he continued promoting a healthy lifestyle when he posted a picture on X of him endorsing a smartwatch called WHOOP, used to track a user’s fitness journey. He also posted his stats, which are intriguing in themselves. His health was rated a 5/5 on the app; he gets a strict 8 hours of sleep, presumably works out at midnight, and gets into an ice bath. Perhaps most impressively, his stress levels are at 0.5/5 — even though he recently missed a last-minute penalty that caused his Saudi team, Al Nassr, to be eliminated from the Saudi King’s Cup. So there you have it guys, don’t dwell on your losses, simply focus on improving.
Cristiano’s big secret isn’t just his healthy lifestyle but the consistency with which he has maintained it. Of course, a lifestyle like this is not out of the norm for elite athletes. These are individuals who are extremely passionate about what they do and highly competitive; they tend to do whatever it takes to gain an edge over their opponents.
What makes Cristiano’s career unique, however, is that he seemingly only promotes what he himself uses and would never be caught promoting candy, soda, or even beer, as some of his peers do. A fan commented on his post, noting how Cristiano only promotes a healthy lifestyle and that this may be an example of him “leaving money on the table” for the less-traveled path, suggesting Cristiano should be celebrated for it.
Now, Cristiano is not an example of someone who has gone through life without being celebrated per se, but it is true that his healthy lifestyle is rarely mentioned when he is appreciated as a generation-defining athlete. He has been in a career-long rivalry with Lionel Messi over which of the two is the best. Considering Messi recently won the World Cup — a trophy that has eluded Cristiano his entire career — perhaps celebrating other aspects of Cristiano’s career could help even the playing field.