Pepe & Ronaldo oldest ever Portugal players
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Cristiano Ronaldo is continuing to break records into his late 30’s. Now 39 years old, and playing his club football in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, the Portuguese superstar is still in pristine physical shape and has played every minute in Portugal’s two opening games at Euro 2024. He is yet to find the back of the net, but turned provider to assist Bruno Fernandes in his nation’s 3-0 win over Turkey. Portugal take on Georgia today knowing they will top the group regardless of the result.
With a combined age of 80 years old, veteran centre-half Pepe and all-time top scorer Ronaldo have lined up together in the Portugal starting XI twice in the last week, and are the two oldest ever players to represent Portugal. Across his career at Manchester United, Real Madrid, Juventus and with his native Portugal, Ronaldo has lined up alongside some of the very best players of his generation. But no player can match the bromance alongside Ronaldo than Pepe. Here at Transfermarkt, we’ve put together a list of the players to have played the most games with Ronaldo, and, as you can imagine, there are some stellar names.
The players who have played the most games with Cristiano Ronaldo
As aforementioned, topping the list is Pepe, who has played a staggering 346 matches alongside Ronaldo. 241 of those games came with Real Madrid, where the pair won three Champions Leagues together, whilst 105 of those appearances were international caps with Portugal. Pepe leads second placed Benzema, who has lined up with Ronaldo 342 times – all of those games for Real Madrid. Benzema and Ronaldo have directly assisted each other for 76 goals in those matches – the best goal partnership of both of their careers.
Third place goes to former Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos, who played 339 matches with Ronaldo for ‘Los Blancos’. Ramos has also actually spent the most minutes with Ronaldo on the pitch as teammates (28,441). In fourth is another serial winner with Real Madrid in Brazilian full-back Marcelo who has played 332 games alongside Ronaldo. Then there’s a big drop to fifth placed Raphaël Varane, who has played 231 matches with the Portuguese forward. 199 of them came at Real Madrid and 32 with Manchester United in Ronaldo’s second spell with the Red Devils.
Taking sixth place is goalkeeper Iker Casillas with 228 games played with Ronaldo – all with Real Madrid. He’s followed by Luka Modric in seventh with 222 matches. Next up in eighth place, is the first of the old guard at Man United. Centre-back Rio Ferdinand lined up with Ronaldo 221 times at Man United in the 2000’s. Another Red Devil takes ninth in Irishman John O’Shea, who made 215 appearances alongside Ronaldo. Completing the top 10 is now Bayer Leverkusen manager, Xabi Alonso, who played 208 Real Madrid matches with Ronaldo.