Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from the Portugal national team after 23 years of playing

Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving the Portugal national team after 23 years of representing the national squad. The athlete announced this in a social media post. Ronaldo noted that it was not an easy decision. "But today is the day I say goodbye to the national team jersey number 7. It’s time to pass it on to the future," the footballer stated. "I never viewed it as exclusively mine. For 23 years, I had the privilege and responsibility to wear it, defend it, and take it with me to stadiums around the world," Ronaldo added. The announcement came ahead of head coach Jorge Jesus revealing the squad list for Portugal's last two matches in the UEFA Nations League qualifiers against Denmark in Braga on November 14 and Wales in Cardiff on November 17. These matches will conclude the performance in Group A4, where Portugal has already secured a place in the quarter-finals. In September, Ronaldo left the team's camp unilaterally due to disagreements with Jesus: the coach had not included him in the starting lineup for the Nations League matches twice. The Portuguese Football Federation suspended the player for 30 days and fined him 250 euros. Cristiano Ronaldo is a five-time Champions League winner and a holder of five Ballon d'Or awards. He has also been a European champion and a two-time Nations League winner. Throughout his career, Ronaldo has played for Portuguese Sporting, English Manchester United, Spanish Real Madrid, and Italian Juventus. Since December 2022, he has been playing for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. Ronaldo has scored 985 goals, including 146 for the national team and 839 at the club level. It is symbolic that Ronaldo retires in the same year as his main rival — Lionel Messi; their great rivalry was one of the main topics in football during the 2010s. At his last major tournament — the World Cup held in the summer of 2026 in North America — the Madeira native became the first player in history to score in six World Cups. However, for the footballer himself, the tournament ended rather bleakly: the Portugal national team was eliminated in the Round of 16, losing to Spain (1:0) — the future champion.