Every member of the Portugal national team walked out wearing Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s iconic number 7 shirt during pre-match ceremonies before their UEFA Nations League match against Denmark at the Est\u00e1dio Municipal de Braga on Saturday evening.\n<\/p>\n
The coordinated tribute marked Portugal\u2019s first game since Ronaldo announced his retirement from international football on November 5.\n<\/p>\n
The 41-year-old, who holds the men\u2019s records for both international appearances (234) and goals (146), stepped away after a public dispute with head coach Jorge Jesus.\n<\/p>\n
In a post obtained from Fabrizio Romano\u2019s X post on Saturday, \u201cPortugal players, all wearing Cristiano Ronaldo shirts ahead of tonight\u2019s game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The decision for the entire squad to wear the No. 7 jersey was agreed in a meeting involving Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proen\u00e7a, coach Jorge Jesus, and senior players including Bernardo Silva, R\u00faben Dias and Bruno Fernandes.<\/p>\n
UEFA granted special permission for the gesture during a competitive fixture.\n<\/p>\n
Players wore the shirts only for the pre-match formalities.<\/p>\n
Club Brugge winger Carlos Forbs was listed with the number 7 for the match itself. <\/p>\n
A further tribute was planned for the seventh minute, when supporters were expected to applaud Ronaldo.\n<\/p>\n
Portugal also unveiled a permanent design change to the number 7 shirt.\n<\/p>\n
A subtle line now runs through the digit, ensuring Ronaldo\u2019s version of the number remains distinct and is reserved as a lasting symbol of his career.\n<\/p>\n
Portugal entered the match already assured of a place in the Nations League quarter-finals after winning their first four group games.\n<\/p>\n
A point against Denmark would have secured top spot in the group ahead of their final fixture against Wales on Tuesday.\n<\/p>\n
Ronaldo\u2019s international career began in August 2003 and included victories at Euro 2016 and the 2019 and 2025 Nations League titles. His final appearance for Portugal came in a 1-0 win over Wales on September 24.<\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
Every member of the Portugal national team walked out wearing Cristiano Ronaldo\u2019s iconic number 7 shirt during pre-match ceremonies before their UEFA Nations League match against Denmark at the Est\u00e1dio… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17866\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}