Ronaldo still plays for the Portuguese team

According to The Athletic, coach Roberto Martinez met Ronaldo before deciding to call him up this time.

When he took office on January 9, Martinez said he expected Ronaldo to continue playing for the national team. "We will start the new strategy by looking at every player who is qualified to play for Portugal," he said at the time. "Every player has a chance, but we also respect the old players and Ronaldo is one of them."

At the 2022 World Cup, Ronaldo started the first three matches, but was a substitute in the two knock-out rounds. Portugal stopped in the quarterfinals when losing to Morocco. After the game, he burst into tears as he left the field. The 38-year-old striker has yet to score in World Cup knockout history. After the tournament, coach Fernando Santos resigned.

At the national team level, Ronaldo holds the scoring record (118 goals), and shares the same record for the number of matches (196 matches) as Bader Al-Mutawa for Kuwait. Both are the same age and Mutawa can also continue to play for Kuwait against the Philippines and Tajikistan in the upcoming international friendly series. At the same time, Portugal respectively met Liechtenstein on March 23 and Luxembourg on March 26 in the Euro 2024 qualifying round.

Over the past two months, Martinez has tracked 200 players capable of playing for Portugal, according to O Jogo, including 82 players playing in Europe's top five leagues. He also does not ignore players who play in Portugal, other leagues or hybrid players.

Martinez could be Ronaldo's fifth coach in Portugal, after Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlos Queiroz, Paulo Bento and Fernando Santos. Among them, he won two titles, Euro 2016 and UEFA Nations League 2019, both with Santos.

Since the beginning of 2023, Ronaldo has played nine official matches for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia, scoring eight and assisting two goals. The current Portuguese coaching staff has former midfielder Ricardo Carvalho - Ronaldo's longtime teammate on the national team.