After Portugal stopped in the quarter-finals of EURO 2024 , Georgina Rodriguez posted a message on her personal page to express her support for Ronaldo and Portuguese fans. CR7’s girlfriend wrote: “We have experienced great emotions at EURO this year. Thank you for always being by the Portuguese national team.”
Rodriguez comforts Ronaldo
Although Ronaldo successfully converted the penalty kick in the penalty shootout, Portugal still lost to France with a score of 5-3. In this match, CR7 played poorly, only touching the ball 40 times during the 120 minutes on the field, even missing 1 good chance.
Following Portugal’s elimination from EURO 2024, there has been much speculation about Ronaldo’s international future, but coach Roberto Martinez has confirmed that the 39-year-old has yet to make a decision on whether to continue playing for the “European Brazil”.
“No. It’s too early. We’re still disappointed with the result. There’s no personal decision at this point,” Martinez said. Ronaldo has previously expressed his desire to play in the 2026 World Cup. CR7 has the chance to become the first male player to play in six World Cups if he plays in the tournament held in the US, Canada and Mexico.
Ronaldo failed to score in all 5 matches at EURO 2024 but is still valued by coach Martinez
However, Sports Mole (UK) writer Ben Knapton believes that it is time for Ronaldo to retire from the Portuguese national team. Knapton analyzed: “Ronaldo is still finding joy in Saudi Arabia with Al Nassr and should not hang up his boots at the club level so soon, but there is no benefit in prolonging the pain of his international career.
Even when Ronaldo played poorly at the EURO and missed one chance after another, coach Martinez did not even think about taking him off, except for the meaningless loss to Georgia in the final group stage match. Plus, Ronaldo’s teammates may feel pressured to pass the ball to him even when there is no chance, that’s the power of Ronaldo.”
Ronaldo ended his EURO 2024 journey without scoring a goal. This is the first time in his career that the 39-year-old has failed to score at a major tournament. In general, CR7 has also failed to score in his last 9 matches at EURO and World Cup. According to Knapton, Portugal does not lack strikers to replace Ronaldo.
“Portugal are not short of quality strikers, but both Diogo Jota and Goncalo Ramos were only second-string players in the tournament in Germany. Ronaldo will not see this defeat as the end of his own record of 130 goals and 47 assists in 212 games, but it is time for him to pass the torch to the next generation,” concluded the Sports Mole writer.
