I recall waiting in the foyer at Carrington for Ronaldo’s emergence post-training to conduct an interview commissioned by United’s then sponsor Vodafone. I was expecting an effete ballet type, a delicate, shy winger in need of protection from hairy-arsed, English centre-backs.

When the sliding doors opened, I was met by a 6ft-plus unit, with shoulders like Apollo and legs like Linford Christie. It was immediately clear who would be dishing out pain on the pitch. It would not be him in need of minders.

More than 20 years later, he is in even better shape than he was then, a phenom, part man, part god, omnipresent, boots or not. In elite terms, Ronaldo retired long ago. The shell of the player he was rumbled on into his 40s, enabled by Saudi Arabia’s need for association with a global sporting asset and Portugal’s attachment to the legend of yore.

Don’t worry. When the boots come off at the season’s end the world clock will still tick to Ronaldo time. Powered by more than one billion social media devotees, or one eighth of the world’s population, fascination with the most recognisable human on the planet is algorithmically guaranteed.

Carefully curated Insta posts from Madonna gigs in New York, a Beckham marriage in St Barts, waving the chequered flag in Monaco, a Maga hat at Barron Trump’s campaign rally in Florida, smiling benevolently during a Papal audience in Rome (granted by Ronaldo, of course) will maintain CR7 at the centre of this flawless universe.

The drive to make real the elusive perfection of Plato’s forms (ideals which can only exist in the imagination, according to the founding father of organised thought) is rooted in the poverty of his youth in Madeira. There is something about sharing a room with three siblings in the home of parents scraping a living as cleaners and gardeners that compels a kid to strive for more.

Ronaldo will retire a rare sporting billionaire, the third richest athlete on the planet after Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods, according to sports business site . Taking the Saudi dollar no longer attracts the pariah pushback it did when he signed for Al-Nassr four years ago. Geopolitical upheavals in the Middle East have overridden ethical concerns, recasting Saudi Arabia as “guys like us” and reducing the reliance on Big Sport as a vector for acceptance.

That the Saudi regime is still happy to funnel £250m per year Ronaldo’s way when they have given up on golf and are exercising extreme financial restraint at Newcastle United underscores Ronaldo’s commodified power.

His marriage to long-term partner Georgina Rodriguez cemented the idyllic patina of family life, pictures of the happy couple with their five kids in sundry luxury settings override any misgivings about his personal life prior to wedlock.

As one academic, Alan Bairner, noted in a 2023 paper exploring gender norms, the rape allegation made against Ronaldo by American Kathryn Mayorga in 2009, which he denied, and which surfaced via German newspaper nine years later, was met with disbelief at home, casting the alleged victim as a “gold digger”.

Whatever his predilections and the realities of his private life beyond the scripted elements he wishes us to view, Ronaldo’s reputation within the game is assured. Sir Alex Ferguson is unequivocal in his appreciation of Ronaldo as the greatest talent he coached in 25 years at Manchester United. Take that Becks, Scholes, Giggs and Cantona.

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Former team-mates like Owen Hargreaves and Rio Ferdinand regard him not as the preening soloist he often appears, but as the ultimate Alexandre Dumas warrior, an all-for-one, one-for-all swashbuckler sacrificing self for brotherhood.

He is likely to sign off with more than 1,000 career goals to embroider the five Ballons d’Or, the five Champions League victories, and the myriad league titles with United, Real Madrid and Juventus.

In this period Ronaldo has been inextricably linked to Leo Messi, twin pillars of the past two decades bound not only by high achievement but the way they make us feel. Arguing the toss about who is the better player keeps the beers flowing but doesn’t get to the essence of either.

That is revealed in deeds alone, their shared ability to fill a space, to create magic, to define the moments that decide games. Messi’s departure is not yet announced. Chances are it won’t come via an interview in .