{"id":628634,"date":"2026-09-18T14:48:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628634\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T14:48:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T14:48:10","slug":"portugal-cristiano-ronaldo-named-in-new-coach-jorge-jesus-first-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/628634\/","title":{"rendered":"Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo named in new coach Jorge Jesus’ first squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo has been named in the first squad selected by new Portugal coach Jorge Jesus, ending speculation the 41-year-old could retire from international football.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo refused to confirm whether he would continue to play for his country after Portugal’s World Cup round-of-16 defeat by eventual winners Spain in July.<\/p>\n

But the Al-Nassr forward is part of a 25-man group chosen for Portugal’s four Nations League games between 24 September and 4 October.<\/p>\n

Jesus has replaced Roberto Martinez, who stepped down as Portugal coach<\/a> after their World Cup exit.<\/p>\n

The 72-year-old was Ronaldo’s club boss last season, when the pair helped Al-Nassr win the Saudi Pro League for the first time in seven years.<\/p>\n

The former Manchester United Real Madrid forward, who announced that this summer’s World Cup would be his last, was in tears after Portugal’s World Cup exit.<\/p>\n

When asked if he would keep playing for his country, he said: “I will meet the family and take decisions with a calm head.”<\/p>\n

This sparked speculation he could follow his great rival Lionel Messi<\/a> and retire from international football.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo will turn 42 before next summer’s Nations League finals and will be 43 by Euro 2028.<\/p>\n

The oldest player in the history of the Euros is Ronaldo’s former Portugal team-mate Pepe, who was 41 and 130 days for his last game at Euro 2024.<\/p>\n

Manchester United pair Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes are also in the squad, along with Ruben Dias (Manchester City) and Pedro Neto (Chelsea).<\/p>\n

Portugal are at home to Wales on 24 September (19:45 BST) and away to Norway three days later. They then play in Denmark on 1 October and return home to host Norway on 4 October.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo has been named in the first squad selected by new Portugal coach Jorge Jesus, ending speculation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628635,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-628634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}