Ronaldo is about to break the international competition record

Ronaldo has played for Portugal 196 times. The 38-year-old striker and Kuwait player Badr Al-Mutawa are the two players who play the most internationally. If he entered the field in the match against Liechtenstein on March 22, Ronaldo would break the record.

Meeting Liechtenstein is Portugal's first match in the Euro 2024 qualifying round. Three days later, in the second round, they will be a guest on the field of another small opponent, Luxembourg.

Ronaldo played for Portugal for the first time at the age of 18, when Portugal played a friendly against Kazakhstan. He came on to replace Luis Figo. In his eighth game, against Greece, Ronaldo scored his first international goal.

In September 2022, with two goals against Ireland, Ronaldo surpassed Ali Daei to become the player with the most goals in the international arena. He currently has 118 goals in a Portuguese shirt, far surpassing the 109 goals of the former Iranian striker.

Al-Mutawa set a record of 196 international matches in Kuwait's 0-3 loss to Jordan in the 2023 Asian Cup qualifiers, in June 2022. The 37-year-old striker has scored 56 goals for the team.

New Portugal coach Roberto Martinez still sees Ronaldo as part of his plan towards Euro 2024 and the 2026 World Cup. After replacing former coach Fernando Santos, he went to Saudi Arabia to discuss with Ronaldo about continuing to contribute to the team. team.

At the 2022 World Cup, experts once questioned Ronaldo's role. In these five matches, CR7 only scored one goal. After starting three group stage matches, he even had to start on the bench in two rounds of 1/8 and quarterfinals - where Portugal lost 0-1 to Morocco.

In January 2023, Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia to play for Al Nassr. In eight matches for the new club in the Saudi Pro League, the former Real and Man Utd star scored nine goals. His last goal was a free kick from 30 meters against Abha on March 18.

Ronaldo returned to Portugal on March 20. In the Euro 2024 qualifying round, besides Liechtenstein and Luxembourg, Portugal is also in Group J with Bosia, Iceland and Slovakia. The top two teams in the group will qualify for the final round. The final round consists of 24 teams, taking place in Germany from June 14 to July 14, 2024.

Ronaldo and Portugal won Euro 2016. In Euro 2021, Portugal lost 0-1 to Belgium in the 1/8 round. At that time, Martinez was the coach of Belgium.