Cristiano Ronaldo retired from Portugal duty on Thursday, November 5, ending a 23-year international career in a five-minute video posted to his own accounts. The 41-year-old captain closed on 234 appearances and 146 goals, both men’s international records, telling the Portuguese people the day had come to hand back the No. 7 shirt. The full story of the announcement itself is in iimiTV’s breaking report on Ronaldo retiring from Portugal duty.
Friday, November 6 brought the morning after: a head coach who says he never saw it coming, the first Portugal squad named without Ronaldo in more than two decades, a new line of captains, and a federation tribute that is promised but not yet planned.
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Cristiano Ronaldo Retirement: Jesus Thought He Would Return
At Friday’s squad presentation in Lisbon, Portugal head coach Jorge Jesus said the retirement caught him off guard despite the public falling out that preceded it. “I thought he would return. I certainly intended to call him up,” Jesus said, in the Associated Press report of the press conference. “He felt that this was the right moment to leave, and that must be respected. We can never overlook what he has meant to Portugal, what he has contributed to the country, or the fact that he serves as a symbol for younger players.”
Jesus was blunter about how he learned the news. “I found out when we all did,” he said. “Until then, I knew nothing about it. He was playing, he was scoring goals; he was one of the players on my squad list.” He said he had not contacted Ronaldo since the announcement, and he closed the door on any grudge: “As for any hard feelings? There are none. Why? Because all of my decisions were made with the team in mind.”
Jesus and federation president Pedro Proenca faced the cameras together on Friday, in footage of the squad announcement press conference:
The First Portugal Squad Of The Post-Ronaldo Era
The Cristiano Ronaldo retirement era now has its first team sheet. Jesus named a 28-man squad for the Nations League matches against Denmark in Braga on November 14 and Wales in Cardiff on November 17. The squad published with the AP report keeps the core intact: Diogo Costa in goal, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo in defence, Vitinha, Joao Neves and Bernardo Silva in midfield, and an attack built around Rafael Leao, Joao Felix and Goncalo Ramos. Portugal have already qualified for the Nations League quarter-finals, and one more point clinches top spot in the group.
Two players earn their first senior call-ups, Porto right-back Alberto Costa and Monza forward Gustavo Varela, among seven changes from the previous selection. Francisco Conceicao misses out through suspension and Nuno Mendes through injury. The bigger change is at the top of the team sheet. Jesus named five captains for the post-Ronaldo era, chosen by international appearances: Bernardo Silva, Ruben Dias, Joao Cancelo, Ruben Neves and Bruno Fernandes.
Cristiano Ronaldo in Yerevan, September 6, 2025, during one of his final qualifying runs with Portugal. Photo: YantsImages, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
The armband is not the only inheritance. Ramos, the 25-year-old Milan striker who spent years as Ronaldo’s understudy, now leads the line, and his goodbye was brief. Ramos reshared Ronaldo’s announcement on his Instagram account with four words: “Thank you for everything.” Weeks earlier, Ramos had said publicly that he wants to be Portugal’s starter. That job is now open for the first time since 2003.
Tributes Land, But The Farewell Has No Date
Ronaldo’s own farewell video, posted Thursday on his official YouTube channel UR Cristiano under the title “OBRIGADO, PORTUGAL,” remains the goodbye he chose:
The Portuguese Football Federation answered with a statement to its “eternal captain,” calling Ronaldo, for many, the best player of all time, and refusing to let the farewell pass without a proper tribute. On Friday, Proenca put it plainly before the squad announcement: “No tribute will ever be enough to thank him for everything he has done for Portuguese football, for Portugal”, adding: “Thank you for everything, captain. This is and always will be your home.”
What that tribute looks like is still undecided. The federation intends to organise a farewell event, but as of Friday it had revealed no date, no venue, no opponent and no format, and had not confirmed whether it would be a ceremony or a farewell friendly. Portuguese reporting has also suggested Ronaldo is not currently keen on returning for one final match, a report neither he nor the federation has confirmed.
The dressing room’s verdict arrived faster. Bruno Fernandes thanked him on Instagram: “Thank you for the inspiration. It was a privilege to share great moments with our national team alongside my childhood idol.” AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim, himself a former Portugal international, was more conflicted: “It was not the best way to end his national team career, but what he did for our country is clear for all to see.”
What happens next is suddenly simple to state and hard to do. The No. 7 shirt is vacant for the first time in 23 years, the captaincy is shared five ways, and a generation led by Ramos, Leao and Felix takes over a team that has already won its Nations League group path without its captain. Ronaldo’s own story continues at club level with Al-Nassr, where he sits on 985 career goals, chasing 1,000. Portugal’s first match of the new era is at home to Denmark on November 14, and for the first time since August 2003, somebody else will lead them out.
