\u201cTo the Portuguese people,\n<\/p>\n
The day has come to hand back the shirt and the captain\u2019s armband of the national team that belongs to all of us.\n<\/p>\n
I never felt that it was exclusively mine, but for 23 years, I had the privilege and responsibility of wearing it, defending it, and carrying it with me to stadiums all around the world.\n<\/p>\n
Today, the moment has come to pass it on to the future.<\/p>\n
It was not an easy decision, because some decisions are not made with the head alone. They are also made with the heart.\n<\/p>\n
I am bringing to an end a journey that began in August 2003 and changed my life forever.\n<\/p>\n
When I look back and think about everything I experienced with the national team, I don\u2019t just see matches, goals, records, or trophies. I see people.<\/p>\n
I see immigrants who, for 90 minutes, felt a little closer to Portugal. I see millions of Portuguese people whom I never met personally, but who became part of my life.\n<\/p>\n
Because, at the end of the day, football is much bigger than a game. Football is about people.\n<\/p>\n
Throughout my entire career with the national team, I always tried to push beyond my limits. I wanted to win, I wanted to be the best, I wanted to make history.\n<\/p>\n
I was always demanding of myself. I always wanted more. I always believed we could go further, and I gave everything I had for this shirt.<\/p>\n
There were perfect afternoons and nights. There were victories I will never forget. There were defeats that still hurt to remember today.\n<\/p>\n
I also failed. I also suffered. There were moments when I couldn\u2019t give the Portuguese people what they wanted so badly. But I never gave up.\n<\/p>\n
And above all, I never stopped feeling proud to represent Portugal.<\/p>\n
Over these years, I learned some very simple things: goals come and go, trophies end up in museums, records are eventually broken, but there is something that time can never erase.\n<\/p>\n
The place I hold in people\u2019s hearts.\n<\/p>\n
If I ever made you happy, if one of my goals ever made you hug someone, forget a worry, or feel proud of our country, then it was all worth it.\n<\/p>\n
Because being Portuguese is also about that.\n<\/p>\n
We suffer together. We get back up together. We believe again. <\/p>\n
Portugal will always need young people who dream, players who never give up, and new generations who believe it is possible to reach places no one has reached before.\n<\/p>\n
Because a country that continues to create new heroes is a country that never stops believing in itself.<\/p>\n
To my national team teammates, I want to leave a special message.\n<\/p>\n
Thank you for every run, every hug, every argument, every moment of silence before stepping onto the pitch, every victory we celebrated together, and every defeat that made us stronger.\n<\/p>\n
I had the privilege of being your captain, but no captain walks alone, and you are all part of my story.\n<\/p>\n
To all the coaches, directors, doctors, physiotherapists, kit managers, staff members, and the many people who worked with me throughout these years, thank you.\n<\/p>\n
Many of you never appeared in the photographs, but without you, none of those photographs would have been possible.\n<\/p>\n
To my family, thank you for sharing this dream with me.\n<\/p>\n
Thank you for understanding the absences, the sacrifices, and the moments when the national team had to take up a space that also belonged to you.<\/p>\n
If I made it this far, it was because we always walked hand in hand.\n<\/p>\n
And to the Portuguese people, to every Portuguese person around the world, I want to tell you one last thing.\n<\/p>\n
There is an image that I will always carry with me.\n<\/p>\n
A moment when the national anthem begins.\n<\/p>\n
I look around me. I see my teammates. I see the stands.\n<\/p>\n
I see children, mothers, fathers, and grandparents. I see Portuguese people who travelled from so far away just to be there.\n<\/p>\n
And during those moments, we stop being different.<\/p>\n
There are no clubs. There are no colors. There are no classes. There are no professions. There are no opinions.\n<\/p>\n
There is only one passion: Portugal\u201d.\n <\/p>\n
Source: <\/p>\n
\u201cTo the Portuguese people, The day has come to hand back the shirt and the captain\u2019s armband of the national team that belongs to all of us. I never felt… <\/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-9932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932","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=9932"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9932\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnigerianews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}