At the age of 38, Ronaldo has not yet decided to retire from the national team when he was called up by coach Roberto Martinez to prepare for the Euro 2024 qualifiers according to the FIFA Days schedule in March 2023.
Ronaldo smiles during a training session with his teammates in the Portuguese national team on March 20 (Photo: Getty).
Accordingly, the Portuguese team will host Liechtenstein on March 23 and visit Luxembourg on March 26. If Ronaldo plays in either of these two matches, he will officially set a record as the player with the most appearances for his national team.
Currently, CR7 is holding the record of 196 appearances for the national team with Bader Al-Mutawa (Kuwait player). In the list of players still playing, Ronaldo is far ahead of Sergio Ramos (Spain, 180 times), Andres Guardado (Mexico, 179 times), Hassan Al-Haydos (Qatar, 172 times).
In particular, Ronaldo's rival Lionel Messi has only played 170 times for the Argentina national team. In the international match schedule this March, Messi continues to be called up to the national team, but the possibility of competing with Ronaldo for the national team's appearance record is still very far away.
Ronaldo will set a record for the most international caps in Euro 2024 qualifying when Portugal face Liechtenstein (March 23) and Luxembourg (March 26).
In addition to setting a record for Portugal, Ronaldo also holds the record for the most goals scored for the national team with 118 goals, far surpassing the old record of Ali Daei (109 goals), and active players such as Messi (95), Sunil Cheetri (84), and Ali Mabkhout (80).
In the Euro 2024 qualifiers, Portugal is in Group J with Bosnia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Slovakia. The opponents in the group are not of the same level as Martinez and his team. With each group taking two teams to the final round, Portugal is likely to get an early ticket. The Euro 2024 finals will take place in Germany from June 14 to July 14, 2024.
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