Portugal national football team players: Jesus’s squad after four wins, and the Ronaldo question

Portugal have played four times under Jorge Jesus and won all four. A 1-0 win over Wales in Lisbon, 2-1 in Oslo, 4-2 in Copenhagen and 2-1 against Norway in Porto have put the Nations League holders into the quarter-finals with two group games still to play. For the last three of those games, the man this team has been built around for two decades was either on the bench or no longer in the building. Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of the camp on 30 September, and his own federation has since suspended him.

The current Portugal national football team squad

These are the 25 players Jesus named on 18 September for his first four matches. Caps and goals are correct to 4 October 2026, after the second Norway game. Ages are given as they will be on 14 November, when Portugal next play. Ronaldo stays in the list because he was part of the squad, but he is provisionally suspended while a disciplinary case runs.

Pos	Player	Age	Caps	Goals	Club
GK	Diogo Costa	27	52	0	Porto
GK	Rui Silva	32	3	0	Sporting CP
GK	Samuel Soares	24	0	0	Benfica
DF	Diogo Dalot	27	40	3	Manchester United
DF	Rúben Dias	29	84	3	Manchester City
DF	Tomás Araújo	24	7	0	Benfica
DF	Nuno Tavares	26	5	0	Lazio
DF	Renato Veiga	23	22	1	Villarreal
DF	Gonçalo Inácio	25	22	2	Sporting CP
DF	Nuno Mendes	24	53	2	Paris Saint-Germain
DF	João Cancelo	32	77	14	Barcelona
MF	João Palhinha	31	40	2	Benfica
MF	Bruno Fernandes	32	97	29	Manchester United
MF	Bernardo Silva	32	115	14	Real Madrid
MF	João Neves	22	31	4	Paris Saint-Germain
MF	Rúben Neves	29	72	1	Al-Hilal
MF	Vitinha	26	47	1	Paris Saint-Germain
FW	Cristiano Ronaldo	41	234	146	Al-Nassr (suspended)
FW	Rafael Leão	27	51	6	Galatasaray
FW	Gonçalo Ramos	25	31	14	AC Milan
FW	João Félix	27	61	15	Al-Nassr
FW	Francisco Conceição	23	23	4	Juventus
FW	Francisco Trincão	26	22	3	Al-Ahli
FW	Pedro Neto	26	33	3	Chelsea
FW	Fábio Silva	24	1	0	Borussia Dortmund

Jesus kept 21 of the 26 who went to the World Cup. José Sá, Nélson Semedo, Matheus Nunes, Samú Costa and Gonçalo Guedes dropped out. Samuel Soares, Nuno Tavares, João Palhinha and Fábio Silva came in. Soares, Benfica’s goalkeeper, was the only uncapped player in the group, and he still is. Diogo Costa kept goal in all four games.

Ronaldo’s 146 goals, and the 121 everyone else has

Take Ronaldo out of the goals column and the other 24 players have 121 international goals between them. He has 146 on his own. That gap was a talking point in September. It looks different now, because Portugal have just scored nine goals in a window in which Ronaldo scored none of them.

Four players shared those nine. João Félix and Gonçalo Ramos got three each, João Cancelo two and Vitinha one. Ramos is the one to watch. He was the striker Jesus picked ahead of Ronaldo in Oslo, the decision that set the whole row in motion, and he scored in three games running. He now has 14 goals in 31 caps. Félix scored in three of the four matches and is on 15 goals from 61 appearances.

None of this proves Portugal are better without their captain. Four games against Wales, Norway and Denmark is a small sample, and the 121 goals are spread across 24 players for a reason: most of them are not strikers. What it does show is that Jesus was already winning without Ronaldo on the pitch in Oslo, before the walkout forced the issue.

What happened between Ronaldo and Jorge Jesus?

Ronaldo started the opener against Wales at the Estádio José Alvalade on 24 September, his 234th cap. He had a goal ruled out for offside after a VAR check and was replaced after 67 minutes. Three days later in Oslo he warmed up from half-time and never came on. In his own account, Jesus had promised him around 30 minutes. Jesus denies there was any such agreement.

On 30 September, the day before the Denmark game, Jesus told a press conference that Ronaldo would not start in Copenhagen either. Ronaldo left the camp that day. Portugal won 4-2 at Parken without him.

About a week later he published a statement of nearly 2,000 words. He accused Jesus of breaking his word, apologised to his teammates and the supporters, admitted he should not have left, and asked the Portuguese Football Federation to punish him without leniency. He also said he is not retiring from international football, and that he had written a retirement letter after the World Cup before federation president Pedro Proença talked him out of it on the flight home.

On 9 October the federation opened disciplinary proceedings and placed him under a provisional suspension, with the case marked as urgent and referred to its investigation committee. Its regulations say a player who abandons a national team activity without justification faces a suspension of one to six months, plus a fine. Proença has already said he wants Ronaldo back. Jesus, speaking after the win in Porto, said there was no resentment and that it was up to Ronaldo whether he returns. Our opinion piece on the suspension argues the president spoke too soon.

How Portugal’s Nations League campaign is going

Date	Opponent	Venue	Result	Portugal scorers
24 Sep 2026	Wales	Estádio José Alvalade, Lisbon	W 1-0	Félix
27 Sep 2026	Norway	Ullevaal Stadion, Oslo	W 2-1	Félix, Ramos
1 Oct 2026	Denmark	Parken, Copenhagen	W 4-2	Cancelo, Ramos, Vitinha, Félix
4 Oct 2026	Norway	Estádio do Dragão, Porto	W 2-1	Cancelo, Ramos
14 Nov 2026	Denmark	Estádio Municipal de Braga	–	–
17 Nov 2026	Wales	Cardiff City Stadium	–	–

Portugal have 12 points from four games in League A Group 4. Denmark are second on six, and Norway and Wales have three each, so nobody can catch Portugal for a top-two place and the quarter-final spot is already theirs. Those quarter-finals are in March 2027. The win in Porto came with a late cost: Francisco Conceição was sent off for a second yellow card four minutes from time. Our reports from Copenhagen and Porto have the detail.

Who are Portugal’s key players?

Bruno Fernandes ran the 4-2 win in Copenhagen, setting up two of the goals, and he is on 97 caps and 29 goals. With only two games left in 2026, his 100th cap cannot come before next year. Bernardo Silva has 115 caps, fifth on Portugal’s all-time list behind Ronaldo, João Moutinho, Pepe and Luís Figo.

Rúben Dias and Nuno Mendes are the core of the defence, with Cancelo, now on 14 international goals, still scoring from full-back. Vitinha and João Neves form the midfield for Paris Saint-Germain as well as for their country. Up front, Ramos and Félix scored six of the nine goals between them.

Where Portugal’s players play their club football

In September this page pointed out that more of Portugal’s squad played in Saudi Arabia than in Portugal. Jesus’s selection has tipped that back. Six of the 25 are at home clubs, three of them at Benfica, his former club. Four are in Saudi Arabia, and that count includes Ronaldo. Four play in England, and three each in Italy, Spain and France. Rafael Leão at Galatasaray and Fábio Silva at Borussia Dortmund complete a squad spread across eight countries.

What is next for Portugal?

Denmark come to Braga on 14 November and Portugal finish the group in Cardiff against Wales on 17 November. With qualification done, Jesus can use both games to look at the fringe of the squad. The bigger question for November is the one he cannot answer alone: whether Ronaldo’s suspension has ended by then, and whether a 41-year-old who has asked to be punished wants to come straight back.

Jesus’s contract runs to 2030, the year Portugal co-host the World Cup with Spain and Morocco. More squad guides: Spain, Brazil, Croatia and India.

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