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Former Manchester United defender Paul McGrath believes Cristiano Ronaldo has played his last game for Portugal.
After Portugal’s World Cup quarterfinal defeat to Morocco, McGrath wrote for the Sunday World: “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.
“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.
“Secondly, Cristiano will certainly walk if Santos stays on as coach.
“I’d say the relationship between the pair of them is broken beyond repair.
“If a new boss were to come in and say to Cristiano, ‘Look, I want you to give it one more go under these conditions,’ yes, I think he’d be tempted.
“But do Portugal need him? They have cracking young forwards in Goncalo Ramos, Joao Felix, and Rafael Leao.
“Would the great Ronaldo, with all those goals, get in the way of their development, if he was still even a squad man with Portugal.
“Probably. And that’s why a shock defeat to Morocco is likely to be the last we’ll ever see in international football of one of the greatest of them all.”