Twenty years after playing his first Euros, Portuguese football legend Cristiano Ronaldo said the 2024 edition is going to be his last.
The announcement follows the dramatic round of 16 game against Slovenia, where the 39-year-old star broke down in tears after missing a key extra-time penalty, before helping the team win the final shootout by scoring the opening one.
Speaking to Portuguese public broadcaster RTP about his decision, Ronaldo said he was not “emotional about that” and that it did not mean “leaving the world of football”.
“What else is there for me to do or win? It’s not going to come down to one point more or one point less.”
The current Al Nassr player has been one of the protagonists in Euro championships’ history.
He played in a record six editions between 2004 and 2024 – and is by far the tournament’s all-time top scorer, with 14 goals.
He won the Euros once, in 2016, the only international trophy Portugal lifted to date. The same year, he went on to win the Ballon d’Or by a record margin of 429 points.
However, he’s yet to score in Germany, and has a difficult mission ahead, as Portugal take on favourites France in a thriller Friday quarter-final at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion.
There have been only three precedents between France and Portugal at major tournaments, all of them at the Euros.
France have a slight edge with two wins (1984, 2000) over Portugal’s one (2016).
Euronews
