Cristiano Ronaldo has no plan to bring curtain down on international career

Is this the last competition that Cristiano Ronaldo will play for Portugal? No. Not even his 34-year-old body prevents CR7 from wanting to keep breaking individual records and also serving the Portuguese national team.

When, in 2018, he won a third successive Champions League with Real Madrid, his speech at the Bernabeu sounded like a farewell to his team-mates, no one doubted at the time that his future was not in Madrid.

After the 2018 World Cup, however, his words after Portugal’s elimination were not that of farewell, instead, quite the contrary. 

Cristiano Ronaldo is revitalised as he looks to lead Portugal to Nations League success

Ronaldo played a starring role en route to the final as Portugal went on to win Euro 2016

He reached an agreement with the Portuguese Football Federation that he would have to have more rest, allowing for a better and faster adaptation to his new club, Juventus. But the truth is that while he is looking to cut down his schedule, abandoning the ‘Quinas’ team is not in his plans for the immediate future. 

Everything will depend on his physical condition, of course, but Ronaldo still dreams of playing in two more high-level competitions before leaving the squad, namely the 2020 European Championships and the 2022 World Cup.

There is a new generation of talent in Portugal, with Bernardo Silva leading them, but there are others that make the Portuguese dream, like Bruno Fernandes, Rafa Silva, Goncalo Guedes, Diogo Jota or Joao Felix. 

The Portuguese national team is brimming with young talent such as Joao Felix (left) right now

Bernardo Silva is quickly emerging as the successor as leader of the Portuguese national team

It is certain that Fernando Santos, Portugal’s manager, is renewing his deal with the national team. Right now, he does not think about losing his captain and talisman. 

And neither does Ronaldo want to give up the role, despite the fact that this new wave of young talent is seen in Portugal as one of the best in a large number of years.

Some say, and write, that an exit for Ronaldo after the Nations League could be more accepted by Portuguese fans because of these new talents. Especially because there are already those who feel Felix, only 19-years-old and being pursued by the world’s top clubs, is the future Ronaldo.

These comments also add up to the excellent displays of the national team during the qualifying for the final phase of the Nations League, which did not count on the contribution of Ronaldo. 

And the truth is that after his return, already in the games counting towards the qualification of the 2020 European Championships, performances have worsened.  Despite this, neither Ronaldo, the federation, the squad and much less the Portuguese people want to go on without him in their plans. Ronaldo is to continue.

If Ronaldo chose to stop now, no one would have doubts that it was he who carried the national team on its back during its brightest period in terms of…