Cristiano Ronaldo: "Probably My Last Year of Football"

In a new Vogue interview, Ronaldo goes further than his earlier World Cup comments — this time pointing at retirement from the game entirely.

By Priya Anand · 16 Aug 2026 · 1 min read · United Kingdom edition

Cristiano Ronaldo playing for Portugal, 2018. Photo: Анна Нэсси, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Cristiano Ronaldo told Vogue: "This is probably my last year of football, and I want to leave a spectacular legacy." It's a step further than what he'd said before — back in November 2025, he'd confirmed only that the 2026 World Cup would "definitely" be his last international tournament, saying "I will be 41 years old and I think will be the moment in the big competition."

This new comment extends that beyond Portugal duty to his club career as well, though he stopped short of naming an exact date — earlier in his career he'd also talked about playing "one or two years" more, so the picture has shifted gradually rather than arriving all at once.

He was clear about what comes after: "I have my future all mapped out." Travel, playing padel, and simply enjoying what he's built, in his own words, "after all it's been 25 years with a lot of sacrifice."

Twenty-five years is the real number worth sitting with — a career that started before most of his current opponents were born, closing not with a single dramatic announcement but with an interview line that quietly confirms what's been building for a while.