Announcement via Video

Ronaldo Retires from Portugal’s National Team!

Cristiano Ronaldo(Bild: AFP/FILIPE AMORIM)

Global soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has ended his career with the Portuguese national team with an emotional video. Just over a month after the controversy surrounding his departure from the national team’s training camp, the 41-year-old forward announced his final farewell on Thursday. “To the people of Portugal: The day has come for me to return the No. 7 jersey of our national team,” said Ronaldo, accompanied by music and images from his long career.

In 234 international matches for Portugal, he scored 146 goals—just two of the many records he set during his more than 20-year career with the national team. “For 23 years, I’ve had the privilege and the responsibility to wear it, defend it, and take it to stadiums all over the world,” Ronaldo explained. This marks the end of yet another international career for a superstar who has shaped world soccer for over two decades. Most recently, his former archrival Lionel Messi had celebrated his retirement from the Argentine national team.

The World Cup in the U.S., Canada, and Mexico was Ronaldo’s sixth. That, too, is a record he shares with Messi and Mexico’s Guillermo Ochoa. Ronaldo scored 11 goals in 27 World Cup matches, but he never managed to win the World Cup trophy. The 2016 European Championship title and the two Nations League triumphs in 2019 and 2025 were his greatest achievements with the national team.

’sLackluster EndingHowever, his long era—which began with his debut for Portugal on August 20, 2003—is overshadowed by its inglorious end: Because Ronaldo didn’t play in the Nations League match in Norway (2–1) and was also slated to sit on the bench four days later against Denmark, he left the team’s headquarters in Copenhagen overnight in late September. A public falling-out between him and the new coach, Jorge Jesus, that could not be mended.

  The coach for the first international match of the then-18-year-old Ronaldo was still Luiz Felipe Scolari. He substituted him in at halftime during the 1–0 win over Kazakhstan for Portugal’s superstar at the time, Luis Figo. The 2004 European Championship on home soil was Ronaldo’s first major tournament and ended with a sensational defeat in the final against underdog Greece, coached by German Otto Rehhagel.

Twelve years later, Ronaldo reached the pinnacle of his national team career. Portugal became European champions with a 1-0 victory over France in extra time in Paris, winning its first major title. Remarkably, the team hadn’t won a single game in the group stage. Ronaldo had to be substituted due to injury just 25 minutes into the final. He is, of course, also the all-time European Championship leader with 30 appearances and 14 goals.

 Faces Criticism at the 2022 World CupAt the 2022 World Cup, it seemed as though Ronaldo’s time with the Selecao das Quinas had already come to an end. After lackluster performances in the group stage and a loss to South Korea, the star was benched. Both in the 6-1 victory over Switzerland in the Round of 16—in which Gonçalo Ramos, who started in place of Ronaldo, scored three goals—and in the 0-1 loss to Morocco in the quarterfinals, the former Real Madrid and Manchester United player came on as a substitute.

But Ronaldo, who moved to his current club, Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, in 2023 after stints with Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus Turin, did not give up. In the 2024 European Championship qualifiers, he made his 197th international appearance, setting a new record. He also scored ten goals in nine qualifying matches and once again became a mainstay of the team. Nevertheless, discussions about his status—and whether he could still help this team even at over 40—continued. The 2026 World Cup ended with a first-round exit against neighboring Spain. All too often, the Portuguese, with Ronaldo, failed to live up to their potential at major tournaments.