Ronaldo Quits Portugal National Team After 23 Years

In a video that appeared on his Instagram profile on Thursday, Cristiano Ronaldo reads a message that opens with the words “Dear Portuguese” and ends with his signature. In between is the statement that Ronaldo is quitting the Portugal national team after 23 years, one day before the coach was due to name the squad for the November Nations League matches.

In brief

• Ronaldo (41) announced in an Instagram video that he is ending his career with Portugal.
• He played 234 matches for Portugal and scored 146 goals.
• The decision comes a month after he said he was not retiring, and after a falling out with coach Jesus in September.

What did Ronaldo say in his farewell message?

The Al Nassr player and, until now, captain of the Portugal national team read the message in the video and also posted it as text. It begins with handing back the shirt. “Dear Portuguese, the day has come to return the shirt of our national team with the number 7,” Ronaldo said. In the part of the message carried by RTS, he also mentions the captain’s armband, which he is returning as well and which, he says, belongs to everyone, not only to him.

He hands the shirt to those who come after him. “Today the moment has come to hand it over to the future,” Ronaldo said, and immediately added that the decision was not easy: some decisions are made not only with the head, but with the heart.

He devoted the longest part of the message to the people in the stands, not to results:

“When I look back and think about everything I lived through with the national team, I don’t see only matches, goals, records and trophies. I see people.”

In that line, by his account, are the emigrants who felt closer to Portugal for 90 minutes, and the millions of Portuguese he never met in person. Serbian media have carried the message in slightly different translations, so the wording varies from source to source while the meaning stays the same.

The moment the anthem is played has a special place in the message. Ronaldo describes looking around, seeing his teammates and the stands, and the differences between people disappearing. The conclusion is short: “There is only one love: Portugal.”

Near the end, Ronaldo says his support does not stop. “I am leaving with my head held high, proud of the road I have travelled and aware that I gave everything I had for Portugal,” he said, adding that he will keep celebrating every Portugal victory, as he put it, with a “siuuu”. In the caption of the video he wrote: “Portugal will forever be within me.” The last words are “Farewell. Cristiano Ronaldo.”

Why did Ronaldo say goodbye now?

Portuguese media point out that the farewell came a day before Jorge Jesus was due to announce the squad for the November Nations League matches. According to the sources, Ronaldo got ahead of the coach.

A month earlier the tone was different. Ronaldo then said he had no intention of leaving the national team and that he was still available to the coach. Between that statement and today’s announcement came the September break in the Nations League.

In that window Ronaldo stayed on the bench in the match against Norway, which Portugal won, even though he warmed up for about 30 minutes. He then left the camp early. The Portuguese Football Federation tried to mediate between the captain and Jesus, but no agreement was reached.

The decision also follows Portugal’s elimination from the 2026 World Cup. Ronaldo had hinted before that he was thinking about saying goodbye, yet he decided to carry on at that point.

The numbers of a career

Ronaldo is 41. He first pulled on a Portugal shirt in August 2003, aged 18, in a friendly against Kazakhstan. Since then he has played 234 matches for the national team and scored 146 goals. Both figures are world records in men’s international football.

He also played at six European Championships for the national team. The biggest success came in 2016 in France, when Portugal won the first major international title in the country’s history. Two Nations League trophies followed, in the inaugural edition in 2019 and in 2025.

Ronaldo pushed the numbers into the background in his message:

“Goals fade, trophies stay in museums, records are eventually broken. But there is something time can never erase: the place we hold in people’s hearts.”

His club career is unchanged, and Ronaldo still plays for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia. Portugal are left without their captain and the best scorer in their history, and Jesus has yet to announce the squad for the November Nations League matches, which will be without Ronaldo.