{"id":529446,"date":"2026-07-07T11:33:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:33:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/529446\/"},"modified":"2026-07-07T11:33:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-07T11:33:08","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-bids-adieu-to-world-cup-with-clear-conscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/529446\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo bids adieu to World Cup with \u2018clear conscience\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo was tearful after the last game of his sixth and final World Cup<\/a>, Portugal\u2019s 1-0 loss to Spain in the round of 16 on Monday decided by Mikel Merino\u2019s stoppage-time winner.<\/p>\n

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But the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner insisted — just as he did Sunday before the match — that in the big picture, he remains secure in his legacy with his national team.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, it\u2019s normal, sad, to leave the World Cup like this,\u201d Ronaldo said through an interpreter. \u201cBut, as I said yesterday at the press conference, I gave it my all, I gave my best. And I leave with a clear conscience.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s football, that\u2019s the life of a footballer. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. And it has to move on. It was my last World Cup, yes, but the rest … I have time to think, be with my family, not make decisions in the heat of the moment and move on with life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronaldo will retire without a World Cup title or even a World Cup final appearance to his name. His team\u2019s best performance with Portugal came in his first appearance, a 2006 run to the semifinals and a fourth-place finish.<\/p>\n

But by any standard, he still finished as one of the tournament\u2019s all-time great performers, scoring 11 times in 27 matches and joining Argentina\u2019s 39-year-old Lionel Messi — whose team plays Tuesday — as the only men to play in six World Cups.<\/p>\n

He was arguably better in the European Championships, where he scored 14 times in 30 matches and helped the Selecao das Quinas to the 2016 title.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore Cristiano, Portugal hadn\u2019t won any titles,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I\u2019m happy. The truth is that the biggest title I won with the national team was in 2016, which for me has the same significance as the World Cup, honestly.<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, I repeat, I leave with a clear conscience, having done my best, and that\u2019s it. Tomorrow will be a new day, and life goes on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronaldo is under contract for one more season with Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, the club where he\u2019s spent the past four seasons. This coming season may be his last, though that has not been confirmed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo was tearful after the last game of his sixth and final World Cup, Portugal\u2019s 1-0 loss…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529447,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-529446","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529446","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529446\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529447"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}