Cristiano Ronaldo, who is 38 years old and no longer playing at the top level, continues to make headlines and break records in his career.
Being able to play regularly for your country is no easy feat – particularly in an era where so much football is played at club level.
On Thursday, Ronaldo has the opportunity to break the record for the player with the most appearances in the history of any national team in the world. During the last World Cup, the Portuguese captain reached 196 international matches for his country, a mark that no other nation has surpassed in history.
This is the same number of matches played by Kuwait’s Bader Al-Mutawa, who played his last match on June 14, 2022.
Both players are still playing at the age of 38, but Al-Mutawa has fallen out of favour with the Kuwait national team and wasn’t named in their past two squads, opening the door for Ronaldo to move clear. Ronaldo will play his 197th international game against Liechtenstein, if Roberto Martinez chooses to give him the chance.
Although it is not known whether Ronaldo will start or play in the second half, everything indicates that he will play.
Ronaldo’s impressive Portugal career
On August 20, 2003, Ronaldo made his debut, and he played his last game, for now, on December 10, 2022, in Qatar.
However, Ronaldo has no plans to stop here, as he intends to surpass 200 games, and presumably, he will reach Euro 2024 in Germany.
Although he departed to the Saudi Arabian League, the new coach will give the Portuguese legend a new opportunity to play, even after he participated in the Qatar World Cup without a club team.