Dubai: Cristiano Ronaldo needs to learn how to adapt his game to match his age, according to Portugal’s Euro 2016 winning coach Fernando Santos.

“I think for Cristiano, the most important thing is to understand this, because he does not know what to do for his age,” said Santos on the sidelines of the Dubai International Sports Conference at Madinat Jumeirah on Wednesday.

“Thirty one is not 20, and at 32 or 33 you need to close the area on the pitch and change little things,” Santos said of Ronaldo, who was awarded his fourth Ballon d’Or this month.

That doesn’t mean the Real Madrid forward — who is 32 on February 5 next year — will have to change his position on the pitch, the 62-year-old tactician insisted.

“That will be the same, in my opinion, because he does not play back with me, he plays more in front and now that is better for him.”

Ronaldo raised eyebrows in November when he signed a five-year contract extension worth £365,000 (Dh1.6 million) a week, keeping him at the Santiago Bernabeu until 2021, by which time he will be 36-years-old.

Questions remain whether Ronaldo can continue playing at the highest level until then, and whether Real should have cashed in on him while they still can.

However, at the conference to announce his extension, the former Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United star said he wanted to keep playing for another 10 years, until he was 41.

So, can he keep going? “You never know,” said Santos. “Because Cristiano is crazy, he’s amazing. He only has one focus and that’s to win, win, win. And he works a lot. Every day he has a programme for himself.

“Twelve years ago, in my first training session with him [they were together at Sporting Lisbon in 2003] I called him into my office and said OK, you are fantastic, for sure you will play with me. But you have to change little things because some [attributes] are not top. In the air you have a little difficulty.

“The day after, I went for training and I see Cristiano with three or four players practicing cross after cross. Now he is the same. If I say you need to do this, for sure the day after he’s done it.

“He’s the best player in the world, but he’s also my friend, he’s a genius. To be a genius you need a talent and you need to work, because if you have one without the other it is impossible to be a genius and Cristiano is a genius.

“I know him very well and you need to understand him because he comes from a small island [Madeira]. He didn’t have the family structure and after 10 years he grew up to be the best player in the world. Many people don’t understand that. Without Cristiano in the team nobody comes to the hotel, but if he’s there one thousand people will be in the hotel shouting ‘Cristiano’ and that’s very difficult for him.”