After international retirement: Portugal honour Ronaldo's career in room 201
The Portuguese Football Federation has decided to honour its legend Cristiano Ronaldo after his retirement from international football, by means of room number 201.
Cristiano Ronaldo announced his retirement from international football last week, closing the book on 23 years with the Portugal national team. Along the way he collected a string of major honours, both individual and collective.
He bowed out after 234 matches and 146 goals, lifting three trophies with his country. Chief among them was Euro 2016, followed by two UEFA Nations League titles in 2019 and 2025.
Those triumphs were the first Portugal had ever claimed. Before the Ronaldo era, the national team had never won a single official tournament it entered.
Ricardo Quaresma, the official spokesman for the Portuguese Football Federation, has revealed that plans are already in motion to honour Ronaldo after the glittering career he enjoyed with the "Brazil of Europe".
Quaresma said, in statements to the Saudi "Al-Maidan" network": "We have decided to withhold Cristiano Ronaldo's room, which is number 201 in the Portugal national team's camps".
"There will be many surprises from the Portuguese Federation in appreciation of the player, but I cannot reveal them at the present time", he added.
Ronaldo called time on his international career after a crisis that gripped the sporting world during the last international break and raised questions over his relationship with coach Jorge Jesus.
Tension took hold of the Portugal camp when Ronaldo walked out of the team's base in Denmark without permission.
A 30-day suspension followed, along with a fine of 255 euros, after he left the national team's camp.
The Portuguese star had already said he would accept any punishment for his conduct, and that is exactly what happened. The crisis, though, ran deeper than the disciplinary matter, as the relationship between him and Jesus failed to recover from the row that erupted between them.
Betrayed. That is how Ronaldo felt about the explanatory remarks made by the Portuguese coach, believing they broke the explicit agreement the pair had struck at an earlier meeting. He fired back with a message laced with a sharp tone.
The standoff rumbled on, casting doubt over whether Ronaldo would feature in Portugal's next squad, with the team gearing up to face Denmark on 14 November and Wales on the 17th of the same month in the final two rounds of the UEFA Nations League group stage.
His name did appear in the preliminary squad for those two games. But the retirement decision ended the speculation for good, meaning the owner of the number 7 shirt will be absent from his country for the rest of his playing days.
Federation president Pedro Proença had tried to step in and defuse the crisis, hoping to coax Ronaldo back into the fold. The mediation came to nothing.
