Cristiano Ronaldo will not be among the 32 international stars adorned with their own 75ft poster in Doha for this year’s World Cup.
Ronaldo became the highest-ever goalscorer in international football a year ago while he has now scored a total of 117 goals for Portugal in 191 caps. He will captain his nation in this year’s World Cup finals and wants to have at least one more major international tournament left in his career.
However, the 37-year-old is going through a dry patch for his nation as he has failed to score in eight of Portugal’s last nine international matches. However, he did net a brace in the Nations League victory over Switzerland in June.
It is undeniable – and totally understandable given the superstar’s advancing years – that he has a diminishing status for his nation and the symbolism of the decline of his on-pitch performances is now set to be shown by him being denied his own poster in Doha.
Each of the 32 nations at the World Cup have selected one player to have the huge posted erected across the city on separate skyscrapers. These posters have already begun to go up across the city, however many nations have yet to select their representative.
England captain Harry Kane will represent the Three Lions while former Liverpool forwards Luis Suarez (Uruguay) and Sadio Mane (Senegal) will represent their respective nations, as will Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric (Croatia) and Bayern Munich star Alphonso Davies (Canada). Qatar captain Hassan Al-Haydos has been chosen as the poster boy for the host nation.
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Portugal are among the nations who are yet to select their representative, however ESPN have outlined how a decision has been taken that Ronaldo will not be the player to promote the nation. Other possibilities include his Manchester United teammate Bruno Fernandes, while Joao Felix, Bernardo Silva and Diogo Jota are other options.
Ronaldo is still likely to start each of his nation’s World Cup matches despite falling out of favour at club level with United. He has been excluded from each of the past four Premier League matchday squads, a run which has coincided with Erik ten Hag’s side’s winning run.
Ronaldo’s one goal to date this campaign for either club or country came in United’s two-goal Europa League victory at FC Sheriff from the penalty spot, and his future at Old Trafford has come under increasing scrutiny in recent months.
