KANSAS CITY, Missouri – Axel Tuanzebe is one of the lucky footballers who can count Cristiano Ronaldo as teacher and mentor.
Former teammates at Manchester United, Tuanzebe would sit and speak with Ronaldo at the club’s Carrington Training Complex. Their conversations were about money, family, recovery, and the secrets of staying at the top.
The Portugal superstar had then rejoined United in August 2021, and their time at the club overlapped at the start of the 2022-23 campaign before Tuanzebe went out on loan to Stoke City. Ronaldo eventually departed acrimoniously in November 2022.
Ahead of the World Cup, Democratic Republic of the Congo defender Tuanzebe said in an interview with The Straits Times: “He was very willing in giving advice and teaching anyone who wanted to learn from his experiences on and off the field.
“We had conversations about different aspects of life. And he was very open and willing to discuss how he sees things.”
“Having someone at the top level, someone who you can say is the greatest of all time, being that open and friendly and treating you as if you’re just normal was great to see, to be honest, because people like that could be very arrogant. He’s a good guy to have in the (locker) room and he was always willing to teach.”
And the teacher could walk alongside his student in the players’ tunnel on June 17, when Portugal face DR Congo in their World Cup opener at the NRG Stadium in Houston.
There is history and sentiment on both sides. DR Congo and Tuanzebe arrive at this tournament on the back of their nation’s 52-year absence on the world stage, while Ronaldo – who will appear at his sixth World Cup – is looking to win a trophy that has long eluded him.
The 28-year-old student will also be charged with keeping his 41-year-old Portuguese mentor at bay.
Tuanzebe said: “He’s coming towards the end (of his career), but to still have a competitive game against him, (I want) to do what I can for my country. There’ll be no fear, no special respect in terms of how we’re going to play.
“He’s just another player we’re playing against, we’ll do our best and I am sure they will too.”
Tuanzebe, who made 16 appearances for Burnley in the 2025-26 season where they were relegated from the English Premier League, stressed that Portugal will not be about just Ronaldo.
“You can’t just focus on him (Ronaldo), you’ve got Bruno (Fernandes) as well,” a grinning Tuanzebe said.
“I have had some good battles in training with Bruno, he’s a big competitor. I would always love to have one over him. Same with Cristiano.”
While a tough test against world-class Portuguese opposition awaits, Tuanzebe said that reaching the World Cup is a dream come true.
The former England youth international born in Bunia, a city in eastern DR Congo that has been affected by years of conflict, etched his name into Congolese football history in April.
His extra-time winner in a 1-0 victory over Jamaica in their intercontinental play-off final at Estadio Akron in Guadalajara, Mexico, helped secure his nation’s World Cup qualification.
“I don’t think you really envision these kinds of things,” he said when asked if he had ever imagined being the game winner.
“You envision sort of a broad scope, playing for the national team, hearing the support from the supporters. But to actually score the goal to send the country through… it was like an unforeseeable doing. I was just super happy that we qualified as a nation.”
In their World Cup group with Portugal, Colombia, and Uzbekistan, DR Congo will look realistically at a third-place finish to secure a knockout-stage berth.
Tuanzebe added: “I think we have a pretty good team in terms of how we’ve been together for a while now and developed relationships and understanding how each other plays. Our group is a difficult group. It’s not an impossible group, so we are optimistic about where we can finish.”
“Against Portugal, we are the underdogs and they are expected to win comfortably, but that means we’re free to play that game, and anything can happen in a 90-minute game of football. Colombia and Uzbekistan are not impossible teams to beat, so we can respect them for sure, but we would want to at least put a marker down in this World Cup and really have something to celebrate about.”
There is no shortage of motivation to help score a miracle. DR Congo has been battered by conflict in its mineral-rich eastern region, and World Cup qualification brought joy to millions in the central African nation which has long been accustomed to bad news. A decades-long conflict has seen Rwanda-backed M23 rebels fighting with government forces in the east, resulting in one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises with at least seven million people displaced.
An Ebola outbreak in the east of the country recently forced the national team to cancel its pre-World Cup training camp in the capital, Kinshasa.
Tuanzebe knows he and his team can bring more cheer.
He said: “Football’s the only sport, in my eyes, that can bend the rules, change political situations, it can stop disasters, stop wars. Football is a universal language, and us doing what we can on the pitch changes people’s behaviours, promotes togetherness, promotes a warmth, an enjoyment, a celebration for everyone to participate in. We will do our best to help in that enjoyment.”
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