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Trophies, tears, records and rows - Ronaldo's Portugal career will divide opinion

Trophies, tears, records and rows - Ronaldo's Portugal career will divide opinion

skysports.com 05.11.2026 13:53 5 views
Trophies, tears, records and rows, Cristiano Ronaldo's international career had it all.

Trophies, tears, records and rows, Cristiano Ronaldo's international career had it all. For 23 years he passionately wore the Portugal shirt. The debates about his achievements and legacy representing his country will go on for even longer.

They will primarily focus on two questions. In his pomp, should he have lifted Portugal to greater heights? And in his final years, did he hold the team back from their full potential?

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player What shouldn't be lost in the analysis - when Ronaldo's record will inevitably be weighed up against that of his great rival (and World Cup winner) Lionel Messi - is that across his unmatched 234 caps, Ronaldo's brilliance helped deliver glory days. Ronaldo's Portugal era is the most successful era in the country's history. The Euro 2016 triumph - Portugal's only major tournament win - and the two Nations League titles were moments when he stood in the middle of a nation's celebration, even if injury had forced him to watch the majority of that European Championship final from the sidelines, coaching and cajoling his team-mates with his leg strapped.

The face-off with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 2014 World Cup play-off was an epic showdown - and emphatically won by Ronaldo hitting a hat-trick in the second leg to Ibrahimovic's two goals to send Portugal to Russia at Sweden's expense. "I know Portugal needed me in these matches and I showed that I am here," he said afterwards. And he was almost always there, across six World Cups and six European Championships.

Ronaldo matched Pauleta's Portugal scoring record of 47 in 2014 - and then obliterated it, with his final tally at 146. "I spent my life working to become the best player in the world," Ronaldo said in his international retirement statement. "Today, I realise that my greatest victory was earning the honour of representing the best country in the world." They are fond words from a man who captained Portugal 172 times.

England supporters who remember the 2006 World Cup and Ronaldo's part in the red card for his Manchester United team-mate Wayne Rooney will know how much the national jersey meant to him. The infamous wink underlined where his strongest allegiance lay. But that meant that Ronaldo, always full of emotion, seemed to feel the blows of international defeat even more emphatically than with his clubs.

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