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Ronaldo hands back Portugal's No. 7 shirt weeks after his bitter rift with Jorge Jesus
Cristiano Ronaldo has ended his 23-year Portugal career with a farewell letter to the Portuguese people, handing back the No. 7 shirt he says he never felt belonged to him alone. The 41-year-old bows out with a men's record 146 goals in 234 caps, barely a month after a public falling-out with head coach Jorge Jesus.
Cristiano Ronaldo has handed back the No. 7 shirt. The 41-year-old announced on Thursday, Nov. 5, that he is retiring from the Portugal national team, closing a 23-year international career with a nearly five-minute Instagram video in which he reads a letter addressed "To the Portuguese people."
"The day has come for me to hand back the number 7 shirt of our National Team," he says at the start. "I never felt it belonged to me alone." The Al Nassr forward leaves as the most-capped player and the all-time leading scorer in men's international football, with 146 goals in 234 appearances, and with the Euro 2016 title and two UEFA Nations League trophies, in 2019 and 2025. He posted the video with a short caption: "Portugal will always be in me."
In the video, Ronaldo sits on a sofa reading his letter from sheets of paper, in Portuguese with English subtitles, while archive footage runs alongside his words: goals and celebrations from two decades in red and green, a young Ronaldo in his early days with the team, flag-waving fans in the stands and moments with his family. He thanks the emigrants who "for ninety minutes, felt a little closer to home," his teammates and the staff who "never appeared in the photographs," and closes on the image he says he will carry forever, the moment Portugal's national anthem begins.
From the Copenhagen walkout to the goodbye
The farewell comes barely a month after Ronaldo's international future was thrown into doubt by a public falling-out with Jorge Jesus, his former coach at Al Nassr, who took charge of Portugal in July. During the previous international break, Ronaldo was an unused substitute in a 2-1 win away to Norway on Sept. 27, then left the squad in Copenhagen on the eve of a Nations League match against Denmark, Sky Sports reported. With the captain gone, Rafael Leão wore the No. 7 in Copenhagen.
On Oct. 6, Ronaldo broke his silence with a statement of nearly 2,000 words spread over 11 Instagram slides, and it was not a retirement. He accused Jesus of going back on a promise that he would play 30 minutes against Norway. "I warmed up from half-time onwards, watched the minutes tick by and wasn't called on," he wrote. "The coach had broken his word to me." He said he heard "an aggressiveness that I do not believe I deserved" at Jesus's next news conference, apologized to the traveling fans he had not applauded, and asked the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) to punish him without leniency. Jesus, who had said the door remained open for Ronaldo's return, denied in a news conference that the agreement Ronaldo described had ever been made.
In that same statement, Ronaldo insisted he would "be available, as I have always been until today, to compete and win for our national team." He also made a revelation that now reads like a preview of Thursday: "After the 2026 World Cup, I prepared a letter to the Portuguese people, which I still have, containing the words I want to address to them when I leave the national team for good." According to Ronaldo, FPF president Pedro Proença talked him out of quitting on the flight home from the World Cup in North America, and then asked his opinion of Jesus as the next head coach.
The letter itself makes no mention of Jesus or the dispute. It arrived one day before Jesus was due to name his squad for Portugal's next Nations League matches, Portuguese daily Record noted, and it set no date for the "one or more farewell matches" Ronaldo promised fans in October.
The letter: 'To the Portuguese people'
Here is the full text of the letter, as Ronaldo reads it in the video, in its English subtitled version:
"To the Portuguese people,
The day has come for me to hand back the number 7 shirt of our National Team. I never felt it belonged to me alone. But for 23 years, I had the privilege and the responsibility of wearing it, defending it, and carrying it with me into stadiums all around the world. Today, the time has come to pass it on to the future.
It was not an easy decision. Because some decisions are not made with the mind alone. They are also made with the heart. A journey that began in August 2003, and changed my life forever, has come to an end.
When I look back at everything I experienced with the National Team, I don't just see matches, goals, records, or trophies. I see people. I see Portuguese people living abroad who, for ninety minutes, felt a little closer to home. I see millions of Portuguese people I have never met, but who became part of my life. Because, at the end of the day, football is so much bigger than a game. Football is about people.
Throughout my entire career with the National Team, I always pushed myself beyond my limits. I wanted to win. I wanted to be better. I wanted to make history. I always demanded the most of myself. I always wanted more. I always believed we could go further. And I gave everything I had for this shirt.
There were perfect afternoons and nights. There were victories I will never forget. There were defeats that still hurt to remember. I made mistakes. I suffered. There were also moments when I couldn't give the Portuguese people what they so desperately wanted. But I never gave up. And above all, I never stopped feeling proud to represent Portugal.
Over the years, I learned a few very simple things: Goals fade. Trophies end up in museums. Records are eventually broken. But there is something that time can never erase: the place we hold in people's hearts. If I ever made you happy, if one of my goals ever made you embrace someone, forget a worry, or feel proud of our country, then it was all worth it. Because being Portuguese is also about this. We suffer together. We rise together. We believe again.
Portugal will always need young people who dare to dream. Players who never give up. New generations who believe it is possible to go where no one has gone before. Because a country that keeps creating new heroes is a country that never stops believing in itself.
To my teammates, I want to say something special. Thank you for every run. For every embrace. For every argument. For every silence before stepping onto the pitch. For every victory and every defeat that made us stronger. I had the privilege of being your captain, but no captain walks alone. And you will always be part of my story.
To all the coaches, directors, doctors, physiotherapists, kit managers, staff members, and so many others who worked alongside me throughout these years, thank you. Many of you never appeared in the photographs. But without you, none of those photographs would have been possible.
To my family... Thank you for sharing this dream with me. Thank you for understanding the absences, the sacrifices, and the moments when the National Team had to take up a space in my life that also belonged to you. If I came this far, it was because we always walked hand in hand.
And to the people of Portugal... To every Portuguese person, wherever you are in the world, there is one last thing I want to tell you. There is an image I will carry with me forever: the moment our national anthem begins. I look around. I see my teammates. I see the stands. I see children, mothers, fathers and grandparents. I see Portuguese people who have travelled so far just to be there. And for those few minutes, all our differences disappear. There are no clubs. There are no colours. There are no classes. There are no professions. There are no opinions. There is only one passion: Portugal.
That is the feeling I will carry with me for the rest of my life. Today, my journey on the pitch with the National Team comes to an end. I leave with my head held high, proud of the path I have taken, and knowing that I gave everything I had for Portugal. But I will never stop being one of you. I will keep suffering, cheering and celebrating every Portuguese victory with you.
I spent my life working to become the best player in the world. Today, I realise that my greatest victory was earning the honour of representing the best country in the world.
Thank you for these 23 years. Thank you for believing in me. Thank you for allowing me to live a dream that began when I was just a little boy in Madeira, running after a football.
The number 7 shirt will remain. The pride of having worn it will be mine forever. Portugal will always be a part of me.
Forever,
Cristiano Ronaldo"
The end of an era
Ronaldo's journey with Portugal began on Aug. 20, 2003, in a friendly against Kazakhstan, when he was 18. A year later, he helped the host nation reach the Euro 2004 final, which ended in defeat to Greece in Lisbon. The breakthrough came 12 years after that, when he captained Portugal to the Euro 2016 title, the country's first major tournament win, before adding the Nations League crowns in 2019 and 2025.
Along the way, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner became the face of a generation and the benchmark for international goalscoring, with a tally no other man has matched. His goodbye also closes a chapter for the sport as a whole: his October statement landed just hours before his longtime rival Lionel Messi said an emotional farewell to the Argentina national team, Sky Sports reported. Ronaldo is continuing his club career with Al Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
Video: Cristiano Ronaldo / Instagram. Photos: social media; Ludovic Péron / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
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