Former Manchester United defender, Paul McGrath has said he believes that Cristiano Ronaldo will not feature for Portugal again.
Portugal were eliminated from the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup following a 1-0 defeat to Morocco on Friday.
“Those who say that the top players don’t care about international football might change their mind on seeing Ronaldo’s tears as he walked down the tunnel last night,” McGrath wrote for the Sunday World:
“He may have been earning half a million pounds a week at Manchester United, but those were the tears of a man who knew he had lost a last chance at winning something money cannot buy you: a World Cup winner’s medal.
“Cristiano will be 41 by the time the next circus kicks off in North America in the summer, thankfully, of 2026.
“He won’t be playing then. But would the great man be tempted to give it one last fling for the Euro 2024 Finals, only 18 months away?
“He might and then he might not. First off, he has a Euro medal from six years ago, it was the World Cup one he wanted.”