Cristiano Ronaldo has announced his retirement from international football. In a social media post today, 41-year-old Ronaldo announced that he won’t play for Portugal anymore, ending a career that spanned six World Cups and included a European title and the men’s all-time international scoring record. The announcement marked the end of a lauded career that began more than two decades ago before Euro 2004 and finished with him walking out on the national team after falling out with coach Jorge Jesus. He said, the day has come for him to hand back the No. 7 shirt of Portuguese national team.

 

Lionel Messi finished his career with Argentina after a much anticipated farewell match last month, Ronaldo’s final appearance with Portugal has ended up being on September 24 in a 1-nil win over Wales in the Nations League. The Portuguese soccer federation released a statement expressing deep gratitude and immense admiration for Ronaldo’s service to the country. Like Messi, Ronaldo will keep playing at club level, and is expected to finish his club career at the end of this season with Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia. Ronaldo is in pursuit of his 1,000th career goal and sits on 985. Of those, a record 146 goals came in 234 appearances with Portugal.