Cristiano Ronaldo retires from Portugal after 23 years and 234 caps

Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from the Portugal national team on 5 November, publishing a farewell letter on his personal social media. The announcement came one day before Portugal named their squad for the final two UEFA Nations League matches of the 2026-27 season.

Ronaldo made his international debut on 20 August 2003 at the age of 18. He went on to appear 234 times for Portugal, scoring 146 goals and providing 45 assists. Both the caps total and the goals tally are world records for international football.

A farewell letter to Portugal

In his letter, Ronaldo wrote that the time had come to return the Portugal number 7 shirt to the future. He said he never felt the shirt belonged only to him, but that for 23 years he had the honour and the responsibility to wear it, defend it, and carry it to pitches around the world.

He reflected on the immigrants who felt closer to Portugal during those 90 minutes, and on the millions of Portuguese people who became part of his life without ever meeting him. He wrote that goals fade with time, trophies end up in museums, and records are eventually broken, but that what time can never erase is the place a person holds in people’s hearts.

Ronaldo also addressed his teammates directly, thanking them for every run, every embrace, every argument, every silence before kick-off, every shared victory, and every defeat that made them stronger. He closed by writing that Portugal would always be in his heart.

Honours, a dispute and a ban

During his international career Ronaldo helped Portugal win the 2016 European Championship and the UEFA Nations League in both 2019 and 2025. His final appearance for the national team was on 25 September, when he started against Wales in a Nations League fixture and played 67 minutes.

He was named in the squad for the subsequent match against Norway but did not play. He then left the training camp before a match against Denmark, saying manager Jorge Jesus had broken a promise to him more than once. After leaving the camp he was suspended for 30 days and fined 255 euros. The suspension ended on 30 October.

Reactions from China and beyond

Former Manchester United teammate Dong Fangzhuo said the retirement was sudden but inevitable given that Ronaldo is 41. He argued that from a sporting perspective the departure could give Portugal’s younger players more room to develop, but warned that the commercial challenge would be significant. Dong said Ronaldo had been Portugal’s most recognisable global brand for more than 20 years, and that the sponsorship money his profile attracted had long funded the national team’s operations, youth development, and grassroots football.

CCTV commentator He Wei paid tribute in a video, saying that 23 years can pass very quickly and that you only realise it when it is over. He recalled first seeing Ronaldo perform his step-over on television shortly after starting work, and described him as a boy from Madeira who became the belief of other children. He Wei said that in youth he truly believed that kind of passion would never end, and that in middle age he understood those were fragments of a youth that could never return.

Ryanair reposted the retirement news on social media with the single word ‘Finally’. Portuguese media also reported that a drone-show video circulating online, purportedly showing a tribute display over Funchal Bay in Madeira, was generated by artificial intelligence and did not correspond to any real event.