Cristiano Ronaldo has retired from international football, a stunning twist from the Portugal captain after he had insisted he wanted to carry on. He follows his great rival Lionel Messi, who announced his own retirement roughly a month earlier.
Ronaldo drew the curtain on his international career 23 years after his debut, breaking the news through an emotional farewell message posted to his social media accounts on Thursday morning.
He didn't even wait for coach Jorge Jesus to name his squad, due on Friday ahead of the November international break.
The Al-Nassr star said goodbye to the national team in a recorded message lasting around five minutes, speaking directly to the Portuguese fans.
His international journey ends after 234 matches, 146 goals and three titles with his country, most notably Euro 2016, along with two UEFA Nations League crowns.
Rebellion, suspension, then retirement
The curtain fell on his Portugal career after a crisis that gripped the sporting world during the last international break and threw his relationship with Jesus into doubt.
Tension took hold of the squad after Ronaldo left the camp in Denmark without permission.
He had in fact already served the 30-day suspension and paid a fine of 255 euros for walking out of the national team camp.
Ronaldo had said he was ready to accept whatever punishment came his way, and that's exactly what happened. But the crisis ran deeper than discipline. The relationship between him and Jesus never recovered from the dispute that had opened up between them.
He felt betrayed by the explanatory statements the coach made, believing they broke the explicit agreement the two had reached in an earlier meeting. That prompted him to spell out his position in a sharply worded message.
Tension between the pair rumbled on, with doubts lingering over whether Ronaldo would be included in Portugal's next squad, set to face Denmark on 14 November and Wales on the 17th in the final two rounds of the Nations League group stage.
His name featured in the preliminary squad for those matches, yet the decision to retire ends any speculation about a return. The owner of the number 7 shirt will now be absent from his country for the rest of his playing career.
Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença tried to step in and bring Ronaldo back into the fold, but the mediation failed to patch things up.
Below is the full text of Ronaldo's farewell message:
"To the Portuguese people, the day has come for me to return the number 7 shirt to all of us as a national team. I never felt it was mine alone, but over 23 years I had the honour and responsibility of wearing it, defending it, and taking it with me to stadiums all over the world.
Today the moment has come to hand the flag over to the future. It was not an easy decision, for there are decisions that are not made by the mind alone, but in which the heart also takes part.
I am ending a journey that began in August 2003 and changed my life forever. When I look back and remember everything I lived through with the national team, I do not see only matches, goals, records and trophies, but I see people. I see immigrants who felt that Portugal became closer to them during 90 minutes, and I see millions of Portuguese whom I never met in person, but who were part of my life. In the end, football is far bigger than just a game, it is the people.
Throughout my career with the national team, I sought to surpass my limits. I wanted to win, to be the best, and to make history. I was always hard on myself, aspiring for more, believing in our ability to go as far as possible, and I gave everything I have for this shirt.
We lived perfect evenings and nights, and achieved victories I will never forget, as well as suffering defeats whose memory still pains me to this day. I failed at times, I suffered, and I went through moments in which I could not give the Portuguese what they so dearly wished for, but I never gave up, and most importantly I never lost my sense of pride in representing Portugal.
Over these years I learned very simple things: goals pass, trophies remain in museums, and records are broken by someone who comes along, but there is something time can never erase, which is the place we occupy in people's hearts. If I ever made you happy, or made you embrace someone after one of my goals, or forget a difficult moment, or feel proud of our country, then everything I did was worth the effort. Because being Portuguese means that too: we suffer together, we rise together, and we believe anew.
Portugal will always need young people who dream, players who do not give up, and new generations who believe in the possibility of reaching places no one has reached before. For a country that keeps producing its new heroes is a country that never stops believing in itself.
To my national team teammates, I would like to address a special word. Thank you for every run, every embrace, every discussion, every moment of silence before entering the pitch, for every victory we celebrated together, and every defeat that made us stronger. It was an honour for me to be your captain, but no captain walks alone, and you are part of my story.
To all the coaches, officials, doctors, physiotherapists, equipment staff and everyone who worked with me over these years, thank you. Many of you did not appear in the pictures, but without you none of those pictures would have been possible.
To my family, thank you for sharing this dream with me, and for your understanding of the absences, the sacrifices, and the moments when the national team had to occupy a space in your lives too. If I have reached this far, it is because we were always as one.
And to the Portuguese, and all the sons of Portugal spread around the world, I would like to say one final thing to you. There is an image I will always carry with me, which is the moment of the national anthem being played. I look around and I see my teammates, the stands, the children, the mothers, the fathers and the grandparents, and I see Portuguese who travelled long distances just to be there. And during those minutes, we stop being different: no clubs, no colours, no social classes, no professions, no opinions, just one single passion: Portugal.
This feeling I will carry with me throughout my life. Today my journey on the pitch with the national team ends. I leave with my head held high, proud of the path I took, and aware that I gave everything I have for Portugal. But I will never stop being one of you, and I will continue to suffer, rejoice, and celebrate every victory for Portugal from the depths of my heart.
I spent my life working to become the best player in the world, but today I realise that the greatest victory was to deserve to represent the best country in the world.
Thank you for these 23 years, and thank you for believing in me, and for giving me the chance to live a dream that began when I was just a child on the island of Madeira, running after a ball.
The number 7 shirt will remain, and my pride in wearing it will stay mine forever. Portugal will always remain within me.
Farewell always.. Cristiano Ronaldo".