Cristiano Ronaldo retires from international football after a difficult final chapter

Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from international football on Thursday. The Portugal captain is bringing a 23-year career with his national team to a close, having played 234 matches and scored 146 goals. Kooora credits him with the world records for international appearances and goals. The announcement follows a final chapter described in the headline as unhappy, and recalls the departures of Özil and Trezeguet.

A few weeks before the decision, Ronaldo left Portugal’s training camp without permission at the end of September, after accusing coach Jorge Jesus of not honouring agreements about his participation in matches. His retirement brings the controversy around his international career to an end. More broadly, departures from national teams can be permanent or temporary: some players later reverse their decisions, or the circumstances behind a crisis change.

André Onana’s case offers one example of such tensions. In December 2022, the Cameroon goalkeeper announced his international retirement after a dispute with national coach Rigobert Song during the World Cup in Qatar. Mesut Özil, meanwhile, announced his retirement in July 2018 after Germany were eliminated in the World Cup group stage in Russia. He had also faced widespread criticism after being pictured with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and the crisis deepened after Germany’s elimination. In his retirement statement, Özil accused the German federation, some officials and supporters of racism and disrespect towards his Turkish roots, saying he believed he had been treated differently because of them.

David Trezeguet’s story offers another parallel. In July 2008, the Frenchman announced his international retirement after Raymond Domenech was retained as France coach. Following France’s group-stage elimination, Trezeguet said the decision to keep Domenech in the job was the direct reason for his departure. He played 71 matches for France and scored 34 goals; he was part of the team that won the 1998 World Cup. Özil, for his part, made 92 appearances for Germany, scored 23 goals and was one of the key members of the 2014 world champions.

Those precedents give Ronaldo’s announcement a wider significance: breaks with national teams can follow disputes with a coach or a federation, but they do not all take the same form or lead to the same outcome.