Cristiano Ronaldo recently reached the 31 year old mark and this is an age where players show significant drops of form as they aren’t in their most optimal point of their respective career.

The recently appointed head coach of Real Madrid, Zinedine Zidane is aware that the Portuguese attacker is entering the twilight stages of his career but Zidane praised Ronaldo by stating that he can continue playing for a much longer period of time.

Zinedine Zidane retired at the age of 34 but the Frenchman is certain that C. Ronaldo is nowhere near the retirement phases. Whilst transfer rumours continue to link the Portuguese to his old club and PSG, many Real Madrid fans would love to see him play on until his retirement, which could be as far as 5 years away.

Zidane praised Ronaldo as he told reporters during a recent press conference, having been in his new job for a matter of weeks: "I feel a certain admiration for Cristiano. I admire him for his goals and for everything he has achieved. I like his ambition. He is never satisfied with what he has done, he always wants more. He is a super important player for me, for the team and for the fans. I retired at the age of 34, but Cristiano will play on longer. It's not that I did not look after myself, but he takes a lot of care of his own body and is a beast physically."

As well as the rest of the players in the squad of Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo will be playing a key role in Real Madrid for the upcoming season as the Spanish club received a FIFA transfer ban which prohibits Madrid from adding new players to their main team and this means that if the squad of Zinedine Zidane suffers an injury crisis or if anyone of his first team players are unavailable to play, the Frenchman is only limited to the performers that he has on his team as the manager is not allowed to sign players at least until 2017.

Athletic Madrid was also sanctioned by FIFA after having signed and registered Under-18 players from outside of Spain.

Even at the fairly elevated age of 31, C.Ronaldo is still able to compete against his younger counterparts and is a reliable source of goals for Real Madrid.