Ronaldo Extends Portugal Career, Targets 1,000th Goal — SkimNews
Get the Sports newsletter
Daily sports — scores, transfers, the storylines from the leagues you actually follow. Free.
- Cristiano Ronaldo considered retiring from international football after this summer's World Cup but decided to extend his Portugal career, telling reporters: 'I still believe that I'm able to help the national team.'
- Ronaldo will win his 234th cap against Wales in Lisbon on Thursday in a Nations League fixture at the José Alvalade Stadium, the home of his first club Sporting, with Portugal head coach Jorge Jesus confirming he will start.
- Ronaldo has scored 979 goals for club and country and said reaching 1,000 in a Portugal shirt would be 'a beautiful story,' though he denied being 'obsessed' with the milestone.
- A Bola, Portugal's leading newspaper, ran a pre-match poll in which readers did not pick Ronaldo for their starting XI, prompting him to accuse some TV channels of being 'dying for me not to come to the national team anymore.'
- Ronaldo, who turns 42 in February and plays for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, said he will finish his international career when 'I feel like I'm not doing anything here,' adding he can contribute 'not only through the goals, but also outside of football.'
Why it matters: At 41 and with 979 career goals, Ronaldo is 21 short of an unprecedented 1,000-goal milestone while still performing at international level — but his selection is no longer automatic in the Portuguese public's eyes, as A Bola's poll showed, raising real questions about whether his remaining appearances will be celebrated or increasingly contested.
Ask SkimNews
