Cristiano Ronaldo and the World Cup continue to be an inseparable pair as the star Portugal forward was just named to his record sixth tournament going back to 2006.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez named a full roster plus a few hopefuls to his list of players for the World Cup, which starts next month in the United States, Mexico and Canada. FIFA is expected to announce the official squad lists on June 2.
Ronaldo, 41, helped Portugal into the semifinals during his first World Cup, played in Germany. Portugal’s first semifinal in 40 years ended in a 1-0 loss to France, with the team also losing to host Germany in the third-place match.
Ronaldo is fifth all-time in World Cup games played with 22 and has scored eight goals in the tournament. When he scored on a penalty in Portugal’s opening match of the 2022 tournament against Ghana at Qatar, he became the first player to score a goal in five different World Cups.
Ronaldo currently plays for the club Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League.
Lionel Messi also would make an appearance in his sixth World Cup if he is named to the Argentina roster for this summer’s tournament. Messi has played in a record 26 World Cup matches.
In addition to Ronaldo, Martinez named Manchester City’s Ruben Dias and Bernardo Silva to the Portugal squad, as well as four players from Paris Saint-Germain: Nuno Mendes, Joao Neves, Goncalo Ramos and Vitinha. Four goalkeepers were included on the initial list.
Selected into Group K, Portugal will open the tournament with a pair of games at Houston: June 17 vs. Congo DR and June 23 vs. Uzbekistan. The team also will face Colombia at Miami on June 27.
–Field Level Media
