Who gets Portugal's No 7 shirt after Ronaldo's retirement, and why FIFA rules mean it cannot be retired

Cristiano Ronaldo set aside his No 7 shirt in the Portugal national team yesterday. 'CR7' has announced his retirement from international football.

In his retirement message, Ronaldo told the Portuguese that the day had come to return the No 7 shirt in the national team, and that he never thought the shirt was his alone.

Even after Ronaldo's retirement, for many people the owner of the No 7 shirt is still only him. That is because he played most of the matches in a 23-year career of 234 matches and 146 goals wearing this shirt. He began wearing it in 2008 and stopped 18 years later.

Ronaldo, who played in the No 17 shirt on his Portugal debut, received the No 7 shirt after Luis Figo retired. Legends such as George Best, Garrincha, Jairzinho, Figo, David Beckham, Franck Ribery, Andriy Shevchenko, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Raul Gonzalez also graced the field for their countries in this shirt.

Not only in the national team, Ronaldo made the shirt so much his own in club football over so many years that seeing the same shirt on someone else in another team brings Ronaldo to mind first. The name 'CR7' became a big brand long ago.

Many Portuguese football fans on social media are demanding that the Portuguese Football Federation also retire the No 7 shirt after Ronaldo announced his retirement decision. Last October too, former Portugal star Paulo Futre proposed retiring Ronaldo's No 7 shirt from the national team forever.

But it is not possible for international teams to retire a player's jersey number forever. In tournaments of FIFA and FIFA's various confederations, national teams have to assign sequential jersey numbers for every player in the squad. At the 2026 World Cup the squad had 26 players, which meant the squad's jersey numbers ran from 1 to 26.

By midnight on the day before each match, every federation has to submit to UEFA a list of 23 selected players for that match, with jersey numbers, and those jersey numbers must be sequential. At the latest FIFA international break, Rafael Leao wore the No 7 shirt after Ronaldo left Portugal's training camp in Denmark. The same rule applies to official matches played under FIFA.

Other federations have also previously requested that specific jersey numbers be retired, but FIFA has always shown an inflexible position. In 2001, the Argentine Football Association (AFA) made an initial attempt to retire Diego Maradona's No 10 shirt forever, which FIFA rejected. The following year, Ariel Ortega wore Argentina's No 10 shirt at the 2002 World Cup.

After Lionel Messi announced his retirement decision last August, the AFA made the same request to FIFA about the No 10 shirt. But FIFA did not allow it. The Cameroon Football Federation tried to retire the No 17 shirt of Marc-Vivien Foe, who died of a heart attack at the 2003 Africa Cup of Nations, but that was also not possible because of FIFA's rules. However, Foe's clubs — Manchester City (No 23) and Lens (No 17) — did retire his shirts.

Retiring shirts is seen in club football. After his death in 2025, Liverpool retired Diogo Jota's No 20 shirt forever in his honour. Stars such as Johan Cruyff (14, Ajax), Paolo Maldini (3, AC Milan), Franco Baresi (6, AC Milan) and Jude Bellingham (22, Birmingham City) have also received this rare honour.

Several footballers are possible successors. But time is on Rafael Leao's side — this left winger has worn the No 7 shirt in Ronaldo's absence. Pedro Neto is another option; this forward currently plays in the No 7 shirt at Chelsea. In addition, winger Goncalo Guedes wore this shirt in Portugal's friendly matches against Mexico and the United States in March 2026.

During Ronaldo's international career, in his absence Nani, Ricardo Quaresma, Bruma, Ricardo Horta, Andre Silva and several other players wore this shirt. But this time the situation is entirely different, because after the retirement of the most famous player in this shirt, there is no certain alternative.