Pepe, Luka Modric, Rio Ferdinand & Co – The players with the most games played with Cristiano Ronaldo

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Pepe & Ronaldo oldest ever Portugal players 

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 still finding the net at a prolific rate (albeit in a lower standard league). For his nation he is still as hungry as ever. Portugal slumped to a 2-0 defeat to Slovenia on Tuesday in one of their final preparation matches for Euro 2024. However, away from the scoreline, some other remarkable records were broken. 

With a combined age of 80 years old, veteran centre-half Pepe and all-time top scorer Ronaldo lined up together in the Portugal starting XI – 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 after last night’s game, no player has played more games alongside Ronaldo in his entire career than Pepe, with the destructive centre-back overtaking Karim Benzema on that list. Here at Transfermarkt, we’ve put together a list of the players to have played the most games with Ronaldo, and there are some stellar names.

The players who have played the most games with Cristiano Ronaldo

As aforementioned, now topping the list is Pepe, who has played a staggering 343 matches alongside Ronaldo. 241 of those games came with Real Madrid, where the pair won three Champions Leagues together, whilst 101 of those appearances were international caps with Portugal. Pepe overtakes now 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. 

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