For a few weeks after Portugal left the 2026 World Cup, it genuinely looked as though Cristiano Ronaldo’s international career had reached its natural conclusion. He was 41, his sixth and final World Cup had ended in a last-16 defeat to Spain, Roberto Martinez departed and a national team packed with younger attacking talent was preparing to begin another cycle. Ronaldo himself has now admitted that he thought seriously about walking away.
He did not. On Thursday night, he is expected to start against Wales at the Estádio José Alvalade as Portugal begin their Nations League title defence under Jorge Jesus. It will be Ronaldo’s 234th international appearance, more than 23 years after his Portugal debut, and another chapter in a career that has repeatedly reached what appeared to be its final page.
Speaking at the Portugal Football Summit on Wednesday, Ronaldo explained that he reconsidered his future after the World Cup and discussed it with both Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença and Jesus. The conclusion was that Portugal still wanted him and, just as importantly, he still believed he could contribute. Now there are two targets keeping him moving: another Nations League title and the number that has followed him for several years — 1,000 career goals.
The retirement Ronaldo actually considered
There is an important difference between the usual speculation surrounding Ronaldo’s retirement and what happened this summer. This time, the question was not invented entirely from the outside. Ronaldo confirmed that he had genuinely considered ending his international career after the World Cup.
The timing made sense. Portugal arrived in North America with one of the deepest squads in the tournament but never found a convincing attacking identity, eventually losing 1–0 to Spain in the last 16. Ronaldo had already confirmed that it would be his final World Cup, and the tournament intensified an uncomfortable debate over whether Portugal were still gaining enough from building their attack around a 41-year-old striker.
When FootyRoom wrote about the apparent end of Ronaldo’s era with Portugal after the defeat to Spain, the wider circumstances pointed strongly towards a natural break. Martinez was leaving, Ronaldo had completed his final World Cup and the next major tournament, Euro 2028, was still two years away. What was not known then was how close Ronaldo himself had come to reaching the same conclusion.
Wednesday’s comments filled in that missing part of the story. Ronaldo said conversations with Proença and Jesus helped convince him that he remained useful to the national team, not simply as a goalscorer but as an experienced presence around a younger generation. His position is straightforward: when he feels he is no longer contributing, or when Portugal no longer want him, he says he will leave.
For the moment, neither side believes that point has arrived.
Portugal have changed the manager, not the No.7
Jorge Jesus taking charge could easily have provided the clean break Portugal needed if the federation wanted to move beyond Ronaldo. Instead, one of the new manager’s first major decisions has been to keep his captain involved.
Jesus named Ronaldo in his first 25-man squad and has already confirmed that he will start against Wales. That matters because Ronaldo is not being retained merely as a symbolic figure at the back of the squad or an experienced substitute brought along to guide younger players. At least at the beginning of the new era, Portugal still see him as somebody capable of starting competitive internationals.
The relationship between player and coach also makes the transition unusual. Jesus worked with Ronaldo at Al Nassr and therefore knows far more about his current physical level, training habits and limitations than a coach assessing him largely through reputation. His decision to start him against Wales comes with recent first-hand knowledge of what Ronaldo can still provide.
There is nevertheless a different tone around Portugal now. Jesus has spoken about selection depending on performance rather than status, while Ronaldo himself acknowledged the arrival of a new generation and said his value cannot be limited to his history with the national team. Portugal have Bruno Fernandes, Vitinha, João Neves, Rafael Leão and an increasingly broad group of attacking options. The challenge for Jesus is not finding enough talent around Ronaldo; it is deciding how much of the new team should still be organised around him.
That was one of the central problems of the World Cup. It will also be one of the first things worth watching in the Nations League.
Twenty-one goals stand between Ronaldo and 1,000
There is another reason retirement now feels particularly difficult. Ronaldo has reached 979 official career goals, leaving him only 21 short of 1,000.
The target has been visible for years, but it no longer belongs to some distant theoretical future. Ronaldo has scored 833 goals at club level and another 146 for Portugal, putting four figures within reach if he can maintain anything close to his recent scoring rate. He said on Wednesday that reaching 1,000 and winning the Nations League are the two objectives he would like to achieve.
Ronaldo also continues to insist that the number has not become an obsession. There is some evidence for that distinction in the way he talks about the milestone: he has repeatedly said that failing to reach it would not diminish what he has already achieved. At the same time, he has never hidden how much he wants it, and this week admitted that scoring goal No.1,000 for Portugal would be the ideal ending.
The pursuit itself has changed dramatically since FootyRoom looked at Ronaldo’s road to 1,000 when he was still 50 goals away. Less than a year later, more than half of that remaining distance has disappeared. What once required a projection across several seasons can now realistically happen during the current campaign.
International football could make the chase faster. Portugal have four Nations League matches during the September-October window and another two in November, while Ronaldo continues to score for Al Nassr. There is no guarantee that he reaches 1,000 before his form or body finally forces the decision he postponed this summer, but 21 goals is close enough for every appearance to become part of the countdown.
The awkward question has not disappeared
Continuing does not mean Ronaldo has won the argument about his place in the Portugal team. If anything, the debate may become more intense now that the World Cup has removed the most obvious justification for keeping the old structure intact.
Before Thursday’s match, Portuguese newspaper A Bola asked readers to select their preferred starting XI against Wales. Ronaldo did not make the team chosen by the public. He is well aware of the criticism and addressed it directly on Wednesday, arguing that sections of the Portuguese media have been waiting for him to disappear from the national team.
The criticism is not simply about age. Portugal’s World Cup raised legitimate tactical questions about whether using Ronaldo as the focal point still maximises the rest of the squad. At 41, he can remain an exceptional penalty-box finisher without offering the movement, pressing or involvement outside the area that a younger centre-forward might provide. A team can benefit from his goals while simultaneously making compromises elsewhere to accommodate him.
Jesus now inherits that problem, but he is not obliged to solve it in the same way Martinez did. Ronaldo starting against Wales does not mean he must start every match, play 90 minutes or remain the automatic reference point of every Portuguese attack. Indeed, the most sustainable version of Ronaldo’s final international chapter may require Portugal to become less dependent on him while still making use of the quality he retains.
That balance will determine whether his decision to continue feels like an extension of something that should have ended in July or the beginning of a more carefully managed final act.
How long can this actually continue?
Euro 2028 inevitably hangs over every discussion of Ronaldo’s future because it provides the next obvious landmark. He would be 43 during the tournament, an age at which playing international football at this level would be extraordinary even by his standards. Ronaldo, however, refused to frame his decision around another distant competition and instead stressed the importance of judging his situation day by day.
That is probably the only realistic approach now. There is little value in predicting a retirement date for a player who has spent much of the past decade moving it further away. His contract situation, scoring form, Portugal’s tactical development and his physical condition can all change before 2028 becomes relevant.
The immediate evidence is much simpler. Ronaldo remains an Al Nassr starter, remains Portugal’s captain, has 146 international goals and is about to begin another competitive campaign for the defending Nations League champions. Jesus has inherited a younger generation but still believes the 41-year-old belongs on the pitch with them.
Perhaps the most revealing part of Ronaldo’s comments was therefore not his ambition to reach 1,000. It was his explanation of what will eventually make him stop. He did not name an age, tournament or final goal total. His line is usefulness: if he feels he no longer adds anything, he says he will go.
After the World Cup, Ronaldo came close enough to that conclusion to seriously consider ending his Portugal career. Two months later, he has decided the evidence still points the other way. Against Wales, the next attempt to prove it begins.
Published by Patrick Jane
23.09.2026