Ronaldo's sister brands Qatar 2022 the 'worst World Cup ever'

FT Desk

• 19 Dec 2022 15:00 GMT
• 3 min read

The sister of Cristiano Ronaldo has slammed the 2022 World Cup as the "worst-ever", after her brother crashed out at the quarter-final stage with Portugal.

Katia Aveira has never been afraid to voice her opinions on Cristiano's career, particularly in the case of a perceived grievance against the ex-Manchester United man.

But in spite of her anger at events in Qatar she was impressed by the final and one of the stars on show on Sunday.

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Commenting on Instagram, Aveira let rip with a stinging criticism of the tournament.

"The worst Cup of all time," she fired, above a photo of Argentina star Lionel Messi and France ace Kylian Mbappe."

She did go on, however, to add: "which happily gave us a great final. What a game. Congratulations to Argentina."

Mbappe, who became the second man to score a final hat-trick after Geoff Hurst on the way to France's penalty anguish, was also singled out for praise by Aveiro.

"This kid is unreal. Such a bright future awaits you. Incredible," she beamed with regards to the Paris Saint-Germain star, while Messi's name was curiously absent after finally getting his hands on the World Cup.

How did Ronaldo fare in Qatar?

It is safe to say Ronaldo will want to quickly forget his own experience at the 2022 World Cup.

After scoring just once in the group stages, a penalty against Ghana, he was dropped to the bench for the last-16 meeting with Switzerland and looked on as replacement Goncalo Ramos helped himself to three goals.

Then, with Portugal trailing 1-0 against Morocco, Ronaldo was called upon as a second-half substitute but could not find a way back into the game, drawing a blank which maintains his record of never scoring in the World Cup knockout stages and also contributed to Portugal's shock elimination.