{"id":919457,"date":"2026-10-07T13:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919457\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T13:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T13:52:10","slug":"football-latest-lionel-messis-argentina-farewell-and-cristiano-ronaldo-rules-out-retirement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/919457\/","title":{"rendered":"Football latest: Lionel Messi&#8217;s Argentina farewell and Cristiano Ronaldo rules out retirement"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ronaldo wants Portugal &#8216;punishment&#8217; but not retiringpublished at 11:05 BST<\/p>\n<p>11:05 BST<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Cristiano Ronaldo\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/d475c61f-35e4-4d9f-a86f-3b3bdc8d9ac3.jpg.webp\"  width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, Getty Images<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Cristiano Ronaldo says he is not retiring from international football but deserves to be punished for walking out on Portugal after head coach Jorge Jesus twice &#8220;broke his word&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The 41-year-old captain left his country&#8217;s Nations League camp last week after being an unused substitute against Norway and then finding out he would not start against Denmark.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Al-Nassr forward Ronaldo has scored 146 goals in 234 Portugal appearances &#8211; both world records &#8211; helping them win Euro 2016 and the Nations League twice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DeKiM9wAEqU\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;stkn=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">lengthy statement, external<\/a>, which ran to nearly 2,000 words, the former Real Madrid and Manchester United player said he should be held accountable for his actions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But he accused Jesus of an &#8220;absolute breach of trust&#8221; for firstly not playing him against Norway after saying he would, before going back on a decision to present an agreed version of events to the media.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;The Portuguese Football Federation must assess the consequences of my actions and punish me for them. I believe the punishment should not be reduced,&#8221; Ronaldo said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;I have already apologised, but I know that actions have consequences.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ronaldo&#8217;s statement comes after Portugal head coach Jesus said there was no rift with the captain, following claims the five-time Ballon d&#8217;Or winner had refused to train.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Jesus said on Sunday that the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/sport\/football\/articles\/c3dxwry8vydvo\" class=\"ssrcss-18834jl-InlineLink e1kn3p7n0\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">door was still open<\/a> for Ronaldo to play for the country&#8217;s national team.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">Ronaldo said that, provided he was &#8220;physically fit, playing with my team, and hopefully scoring goals&#8221;, he would like to continue to play international football.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;After my suspension period ends, I will be available, as I always have been, to compete and win with our national team,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p>    <script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ronaldo wants Portugal &#8216;punishment&#8217; but not retiringpublished at 11:05 BST 11:05 BST Image source, Getty Images Cristiano Ronaldo&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":919458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-919457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=919457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/919457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/919458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=919457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=919457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=919457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}