Cristiano Ronaldo, captain of the Portugal national football team, was honored for his 200 caps for England at Porto’s Dragao Stadium for the Group J matchday seven of the Euro 2024 qualifiers. Slovakia.
On June 20, the Saudi striker from Al Nasr, aged 38, became the first male footballer in history to reach two hundred caps for the national team when Qinas faced Iceland in Reykjavik, where he found himself. scored the only goal of the match in the 89th minute.
However, it was only this Friday that he returned to play on Portuguese soil under Portuguese colours, after the Bratislava triumph with Slovakia (1-0) and the historic defeat inflicted on Luxembourg in Faro, in a match in which Ronaldo was not present due to punishment.
Before both teams entered the Dragao stadium, a banner featuring the Portuguese captain and the words “CR 200” was displayed, after which fans applauded Ronaldo as he received a plaque. in the form of a shirt from the hands of the President of the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF) Fernando Gomes.
After two decades as a full-time member of the national team, and much of that time with the captain’s armband, Ronaldo was in the starting line-up for Roberto Martinez’s team, and in the Icelandic capital – in the Laugardalsvöllur stadium filled with more than 15 thousand people (he did not had been filled for over four years), had reached two hundred games when the match referee blew the whistle for kick-off, still a long way off the overall record set by North American Christine Lilly (354 games).
Before the game, in a small ceremony on the pitch, Ronaldo received a national team shirt with the number “200” on the back, as well as a shirt similar to the one he wore on his debut in 2003, with the number “17” (although in his in the first game he wore number 16) as well as a plaque commemorating the Guinness World Records record, which received a standing ovation from all fans present at the stadium.
The Madeiran-born player set another career record, cementing his legacy on the throne of the football ‘gods’ by becoming the team’s all-time leading scorer, surpassing the figure long held by the Iranian’s unbeaten record. Daei (109).
In March of this year, Ronaldo already became the most international player in history, overtaking Kuwaiti Bader Al-Mutawa.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
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