Cristiano Ronaldo retirement: CR7 quits Portugal after 234 caps, 146 goals
Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from Portugal at 41, handing back the No. 7 shirt after 23 years. What he said, the Jorge Jesus row and his records.
Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football. The 41-year-old announced it on Thursday, 5 November, in a long video message on Instagram, ending a Portugal career that began in August 2003 and ran to 234 caps and 146 goals, both men’s world records.
“To the Portuguese people, the day has come to hand back the number seven shirt of the national team that belongs to us all,” Ronaldo said in the video. “It was not an easy decision, because there are decisions that are not made solely with the head; they are also made with the heart.”
He will keep playing club football and is expected to see out the season at Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
Why now: the Jorge Jesus row
The goodbye comes after an ugly few weeks. Jorge Jesus, Ronaldo’s former coach at Al Nassr, took over Portugal and left him on the bench as an unused substitute in a 2-1 win in Norway on 4 October, the first time in 18 years that had happened to him. When Jesus kept him out of the next match too and said he did not plan to start him in the one after, Ronaldo walked out of the training camp, saying the coach had broken promises over his playing time.
The Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) gave him a 30-day suspension for leaving the camp. Ronaldo apologised to his teammates, but not to Jesus. His last match for Portugal turns out to be the 1-0 Nations League win over Wales in Lisbon on 24 September.
Jesus told Portugal’s Channel 11 on Thursday: “I asked him to stay on with me.” He added that Ronaldo “will always be in the hearts of the Portuguese people” and that he had to accept the decision. The announcement came a day before Jesus names his squad for the Nations League games against Denmark and Wales.
The numbers he leaves behind
- 234 caps and 146 goals for Portugal, the most appearances and the most goals in men’s international football.
- Euro 2016, Portugal’s first major trophy, plus the Nations League in 2019 and 2025.
- The first man to score at six World Cups, with 11 World Cup goals, past Eusébio’s Portugal record of nine.
- 41 World Cup qualifying goals, and the most European Championship matches (30) and goals (14). He is the only player to score at five Euros.
- A goal for Portugal in 23 straight calendar years, from 2004 to 2026.
His first cap came in a friendly against Kazakhstan in August 2003, when he came on for Luís Figo. His first international goal arrived at Euro 2004, the tournament Portugal hosted and lost in the final to Greece. Portugal went out of the 2026 World Cup in the round of 16.
How Portugal said goodbye
The FPF said in a statement that it thanked Ronaldo “with a sense of deep gratitude and immense admiration” and would hold a tribute at a later date. “For many of us, he is the greatest player of all time!” the federation wrote, signing off with: “Let’s go for goal number 1,000!!!” Manchester United, Sporting CP and Juventus, three of his old clubs, also posted tributes.
That last line is the target now. Ronaldo has 985 official career goals for club and country, and every one of the remaining 15 will have to come for Al Nassr. It also means the two players who defined a generation are both gone from international football within a month: Lionel Messi finished with Argentina less than four weeks ago.
“Goals come and go, trophies end up in museums, and records are eventually broken,” Ronaldo said. “But there is one thing that time can never erase: the place we hold in people’s hearts.”
