Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football. The 41-year-old announced on social media that he is handing back the Portugal No. 7 shirt after the November 2026 international break, ending a career with his national team that began in 2003 and covered 23 years, 234 appearances and 146 goals.
“To the Portuguese people,” he wrote in his announcement, “the day has come for me to hand back the No. 7 shirt of our national team.”
He added, in Portuguese: “Portugal estará sempre em mim.” Portugal will always be within me.
The Numbers
Two hundred and thirty-four caps. One hundred and forty-six goals. Both records for international football in the men’s game, and both set by the same player across the same career. No other player in history has scored more goals for a national team. No other player has made more appearances.
Ronaldo first pulled on the Portugal shirt in 2003, three months before his move to Manchester United. He was 18 years old, already electric, already carrying the weight of an entire country’s expectations on a frame that was not yet fully formed. He wore the shirt for the last time in 2026, at 41, at his sixth World Cup, in a tournament that did not go the way he wanted.
Between those two moments: everything.
The Trophy That Defined It All
Portugal’s international record before Ronaldo was a list of near-misses and third places. Eusebio’s generation reached the 1966 World Cup semi-finals and finished third. After that, nothing to compare.
Ronaldo changed that at Euro 2016 in France. It was not the tournament he had hoped for personally. He hobbled off in the final in Paris with a knee injury, eventually watching from the sideline in tears as Ricardo Quaresma and Eder carried the team. Portugal beat France 1-0. Eder scored in extra time.
Ronaldo did not score in that final. He did not need to. He had scored and created enough across the tournament to get his team there, and then he led from the touchline when his legs would not take him onto the pitch. Portugal were European champions for the first time in their history. It remains the only major tournament trophy they have won.
The two UEFA Nations League titles that followed added to the collection. They did not carry the same weight as the European Championship, but they confirmed Portugal as a team capable of winning things, a team that expected to win things, a team built in the image of its captain.
Why Now
Ronaldo had spoken before the 2026 World Cup about it being his last. Portugal co-hosts the 2030 World Cup, and many assumed he would push to be part of that too, to represent his country on home soil one final time.
It will not happen. The 2026 tournament in North America was a difficult one, with significant criticism directed at Ronaldo for continuing to start up front as his physical contributions to the team diminished. The relationship between him and new Portugal manager Jorge Jesus deteriorated to the point of a public break during the most recent international window, with Ronaldo leaving the squad and subsequently being suspended by the team.
That was the final act. The retirement announcement followed.
The Portuguese Football Federation has confirmed it will hold a special tribute to honour his service. Twenty-three years, two records, one European Championship. That tribute, whatever form it takes, will not be enough to fully acknowledge what he gave the game and his country.
What Comes Next
Ronaldo continues to play club football for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. His retirement from international duty ends only one half of a career that is still, technically, ongoing.
But the half that ends today is the half that mattered most. The club trophies, the Ballon d’Or awards, the Premier League titles and Champions League finals, all of that belongs to the club version of Cristiano Ronaldo. The international version, the one who wore the number 7 for Portugal, was something different. That version carried the hopes of a small country and turned those hopes into the only major trophy Portuguese football has ever known.
He is handing back the shirt. He says Portugal will always be within him.
It is not a difficult claim to believe.
Sources: Al Jazeera | NBC Sports | Yahoo Sports