Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football with immediate effect. His retirement ends a 23-year Portugal career with men’s world records of 146 goals and 234 caps.
The 41-year-old made the announcement in a video on his social media accounts on Thursday, Nov. 5. It was time, he said, “to hand back the number 7 shirt of our national team,” as Football365 translated it.
The timing matters as much as the numbers. Coach Jorge Jesus was due to name his November squad the next day, A Bola reported. The announcement also came about six weeks after Ronaldo walked out of the national team camp in a row with Jesus.
A walkout, a ban and then the goodbye
The break started in Oslo. Ronaldo was an unused substitute in Portugal’s 2-1 Nations League win over Norway on Sept. 27, Sky Sports reported, and then left the squad.
According to ESPN, he went straight to the dressing room at the final whistle. He did not join teammates in applauding the traveling fans.
In a statement afterwards, Ronaldo said Jesus had promised him about 30 minutes in Oslo. “The coach had broken his word to me,” he said, according to Sky Sports. Jesus denied any agreement.
Ronaldo missed Portugal’s next two games, and the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) opened disciplinary proceedings on Oct. 9.
The FPF then gave him a 30-day ban, which he accepted, German news agency dpa reported. In that October statement he also said he would not retire from the national team. He had already written a retirement statement once, Sky Sports reported. FPF president Pedro Proença talked him out of it on the flight home from the World Cup in North America.
Once the ban ended, dpa said, the team expected him back for the November games. Instead he quit, and A Bola reported that he did not tell Jesus first. His last game for Portugal was the 1-0 win over Wales that opened this Nations League campaign in September. He started it, Sky Sports said.
What Ronaldo said, and what he didn’t
The video runs about five minutes, according to A Bola. Record published the Portuguese text in full. It signs off: “Portugal estará sempre em mim. Até sempre.” That translates as “Portugal will always be in me. Farewell.”
In Football365’s translation, he called his greatest victory “earning the honour of representing the best country in the world.” He wrote that “some decisions are not made with the mind alone. They are also made with the heart.” He thanked Portuguese fans who traveled long distances to see the team. Portugal, he added, “will always need young people who dare to dream.”
He also promised to keep following the team as a fan. In Record’s text, he says he will go on “suffering, cheering and celebrating every Portugal victory” (our translation). The statement does not mention Jesus, the walkout or the ban.
Ronaldo’s Portugal career in numbers
These figures come from the reports linked in this story, plus two of our own calculations.
| Measure | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Debut | Aug. 20, 2003, v Kazakhstan, aged 18 | Ronaldo, quoted by Gulf News |
| Caps | 234, a men’s international record | Sky Sports, Record |
| Goals | 146, a men’s international record | Sky Sports, Record |
| Goals per game | 0.62 | Our calculation |
| Major tournaments | 12: six World Cups (2006-2026), six Euros | Sky Sports |
| World Cup record | 11 goals in 27 games; only player to score at six World Cups | Al Jazeera |
| Titles | Euro 2016; Nations League 2019 and 2025 | Sky Sports |
| Goals after the 2025 Nations League final | 8 (his equalizer there was No. 138) | AP; our calculation |
Three titles, and a 12-year wait for the first
Portugal reached a final early in his career. They lost the Euro 2004 final to Greece at home, a night that “left a teenage Ronaldo in tears,” Gulf News recalled in 2019.
The first trophy took another 12 years. In the Euro 2016 final against France, Ronaldo went off injured after 25 minutes. Eder then won it 1-0 in extra time, ESPN reported.
The Nations League followed in 2019, a 1-0 win over the Netherlands in Porto. In June 2025, Portugal beat Spain 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 draw in Munich, AP reported. That made them the first country to win the competition twice, and Ronaldo scored their second goal at age 40.
His last World Cup ended in July with a 1-0 loss to Spain in the round of 16.
We broke down his record across all six World Cups earlier.
Before that, Ronaldo scored twice against Uzbekistan and a penalty against Croatia, according to Al Jazeera. At 41, he became the oldest scorer in a World Cup knockout game. Roberto Martínez left after the Spain loss, and Jesus replaced him.
Portugal’s next squad, and Ronaldo’s club career
Jesus names his squad on Friday, Nov. 6, according to A Bola. Portugal play Denmark on Nov. 14 and Wales on Nov. 17, per ESPN’s fixture list. They have won all four group games so far, three of them without Ronaldo on the pitch.
The FPF called him its “eternal captain,” according to dpa. It said it “refuses to let this farewell take place without paying him the tribute he deserves.” The federation’s own statement, titled “Obrigado, Capitão!” (“Thank you, captain!”), gives no date or format.
Dpa added that a farewell match looks unlikely after the dispute. Prime Minister Luís Montenegro and President António José Seguro both thanked him publicly, RTP reported.
He is not retiring from football. Ronaldo will keep playing for Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
He could reach 1,000 career goals this season, dpa reported, though he has suggested he may stop altogether next year. Last month, a paid fan vote ranked his 2008 season as the best Ballon d’Or year of all time. The next date to watch is the FPF’s tribute, which it has promised but not yet scheduled.