Cristiano Ronaldo breaks down in tears after Portugal’s elimination by Spain<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter the match, the Portuguese forward stated that he left with a “clear conscience,” considering that he left a historic legacy for his country by winning the national team’s first three official titles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I will wake up just like today, with a clear conscience. I have won three titles with Portugal. Before Cristiano, Portugal had no titles. I am happy. The greatest title I won with the national team was the 2016 European Championship; for me, it has the same dimension as a World Cup,” Ronaldo expressed in the mixed zone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The veteran attacker acknowledged the sadness of saying goodbye to the World Cup with a defeat, although he stated that he gave everything on the pitch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am sad to leave the World Cup like this, but I have given everything, the best of me. I leave with a clear conscience. That’s football, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose. You have to keep going,” he stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ronaldo also left his future as a footballer in suspense, indicating that he will make the decision after talking with his family and avoiding doing so in the heat of the moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was my last World Cup, but there will be time to think about the rest, be with my family, and not make decisions while hot-headed,” he pointed out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regarding the match, the forward considered that the game was very even and that Spain managed to qualify thanks to a goal in the final minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was a very balanced match. It could have gone either way and Spain had a little bit of luck scoring in the final minutes, but that’s football,” he concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With this elimination, Cristiano Ronaldo definitively closes his history in the World Cups, putting an end to a career that defined an era with the Portuguese national team and included the conquest of the 2016 European Championship, the UEFA Nations League, and other important international achievements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arlington, United States. The captain of the Portugal national team, Cristiano Ronaldo, ended his World Cup career this Monday following the 1-0 defeat against Spain in the round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup, held at AT&T Stadium in Arlington. You might be interested in:Cristiano Ronaldo breaks down in tears after Portugal’s elimination by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":514098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[44182],"class_list":["post-513483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uncategorized","tag-cover"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phj1q1-29zZ","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cristiano_ronaldo.jpeg","dum_api":{"author_name":"EFE","author_image":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/1200px-EFE_logo.svg-96x96.png","categories_name":["Uncategorized"],"featured_media_url":"https:\/\/cdn.deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/07\/cristiano_ronaldo.jpeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=513483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/513483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/514098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=513483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=513483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/deultimominuto.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=513483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}