Ronaldo walked out on Portugal and said he would not retire, and five weeks later he has handed back the No 7 shirt
Cristiano Ronaldo has ended his Portugal career with 146 goals in 234 games, five weeks after leaving the national team camp in a row with coach Jorge Jesus.
Nov 6, 2026
When Cristiano Ronaldo walked out of Portugal’s camp in Copenhagen on 30 September, the long statement he put out a week later said he was not retiring. On Thursday, 5 November, in a video on Instagram, he did. “To the Portuguese people, the day has come for me to hand back the number seven shirt of our national team,” he said.
He finishes with 146 goals in 234 appearances, both records in the men’s game. His last match for Portugal was the 1-0 Nations League win over Wales in Lisbon on 24 September. Three days later in Oslo he warmed up from half-time and never came on, and that was the end of it.
The video never mentions Jorge Jesus
Ronaldo talked about 23 years in the shirt, a journey that “began in August 2003”, and about how the choice had been made “with the heart” as well as the head. He also came close to an apology. “I made mistakes; I suffered,” he said, and admitted there were times he could not give Portuguese fans what they so badly wanted.
What he left out was the coach. Ronaldo’s walkout statement had accused Jesus of twice breaking his word over playing time, which Jesus has always denied. The federation’s disciplinary council gave Ronaldo a 30-day ban and a €255 fine on 19 October, backdated so that it had already run out by the time he made his announcement. Jesus had said the door was still open. He was due to name his squad for the November games on Friday, the day after the video went up.
Portugal have not needed Ronaldo on the pitch so far. They beat Denmark 4-2 in Copenhagen and Norway 2-1 in Porto while he was away, with Gonçalo Ramos scoring in both, and they are already through to the Nations League quarter-finals. They host Denmark on 14 November and play Wales away on 17 November.
Two farewells a month apart
The contrast with Lionel Messi is hard to miss. Messi’s last game for Argentina was against Benin at the Monumental on 6 October, in front of 85,000 people, and he scored a penalty and set up two goals in a 3-0 win. Ronaldo, who played at Portugal’s World Cup this summer before they went out to Spain in the last 16, has no farewell match at all. For the most-capped player in men’s international football, it is an odd way to stop.
The Portuguese Football Federation seems to know how that looks. It said it would not “allow this farewell to take place without the tribute it deserves”, and that it wants to organise one where fans can applaud him properly. Its statement signed off with a line about his next target: “Let’s go for goal 1,000!!!”
Two Euro finals and two Nations Leagues
He was 19 when Portugal lost the Euro 2004 final to Greece in Lisbon, and he went off injured and in tears in the first half of the Euro 2016 final in Paris, which Portugal won 1-0 against France. He also lifted the Nations League in 2019 and again in 2025. He is the top scorer in European Championship history with 14 goals and played at six World Cups, though Portugal never got past a semi-final in any of them.
If you want the full set of numbers against his great rival, our Messi vs Ronaldo stats comparison has them, and the Portugal squad guide covers the players who now have the shirt to themselves.
Still playing for Al-Nassr
This is not a full retirement. Ronaldo is 41 and will keep playing for Al-Nassr, where he scored a hat-trick in 15 minutes against Al-Kholood on 29 October. He is on 985 career goals, and the 1,000 he has talked about for years is the target he has left. He will have to get there without Portugal.