When FM27 comes out on 10 November, many of us will do the same thing in the first few minutes: open the Portugal national team screen and see who's there. This year there's a question we've never had to ask: will Cristiano Ronaldo still show up as a Portugal player?
The short answer: most likely, yes. And it's not because Sports Interactive isn't paying attention. It's a matter of timing. But let's take it step by step.
From World Cup farewell to walking out in Copenhagen
In July, after the 1-0 defeat to Spain in the World Cup round of 16 in Dallas, Ronaldo confirmed he had played his last World Cup, his sixth. As for the national team, he preferred to wait rather than decide things "in the heat of the moment", and said he would think it over with his family.
Roberto Martínez left and in came Jorge Jesus, on a contract running until the 2030 World Cup. According to SIC, Ronaldo came close to leaving the national team at that point, and it was the new manager and Pedro Proença, president of the Portuguese FA, who convinced him to carry on, in a meeting at the player's home.
The first window of the new era actually started well. On 24 September, Portugal beat Wales 1-0 at Alvalade in the Nations League, with the captain on the pitch until the second half. Three days later, in the 2-1 win over Norway, Ronaldo warmed up but never came on. At full time he went straight to the dressing room without joining the rest of the team in thanking the fans, and the next day he didn't train with the group.
You know the rest. On 30 September in Copenhagen, Jorge Jesus made it clear in his press conference before the Denmark game that no player would change his ideas. Ronaldo spoke with Pedro Proença and, that same night, left the camp on a private jet. On social media he explained that he had made the decision after the manager's press conference and left a promise:
"In due course, I will tell all Portuguese people the truth about the reasons behind my departure from the national team, to which I have always dedicated myself."
The next day, Portugal won 4-2 in Denmark without him.
He left the camp. But has he left the national team?
This is where it matters for FM. Ronaldo wished Portugal and his teammates good luck, and the press, at home and abroad, talks of an irreversible decision. But so far there has been no formal announcement that he is retiring from international football. The Portuguese FA's statement simply said the player had left the camp and that the group would carry on with the remaining 24 players.
And the door isn't fully closed. Renascença reported that Pedro Proença wants to sit Jesus and Ronaldo down together to settle their differences, and the manager has already said he's available. Even the Prime Minister, Luís Montenegro, spoke to all three. It's still unclear whether the FA wants to bring the captain back or give him a farewell worthy of 234 caps and 146 goals.
There's also the disciplinary side: Portuguese FA rules allow bans of one to six months for anyone who walks out on national team duty without justification. For now, no proceedings are known.
Why FM27 won't know about any of this
There are two reasons, and the first is the simplest: the game starts in the summer. When you load a new FM27 save, you're in July 2026, weeks before any of this happened. At that point, Ronaldo was still Portugal's captain.
The second is the database. For the game to hit shelves on 10 November, SI locks the data a few weeks earlier so there's time to test everything. The research team usually follows the market until the summer transfer deadline, but walking out of a camp on 30 September, with no official retirement announcement, comes practically at the last minute. And even if SI wanted to mark Ronaldo as retired from international football, there would be no official decision to base it on.
So the most likely scenario is that in FM27 you'll find Ronaldo at Al Nassr, where he's under contract until 2027, and available for Portugal call-ups, most likely with Jorge Jesus in the dugout.
Cristiano Ronaldo in FM26: 41 years old, at Al Nassr and still a Portugal international.
And then, in your save?
From there, it all depends on the game and on you. In FM, older players often announce their international retirement on their own, frequently after a major tournament, so it wouldn't be strange to see that news pop up in the first few months of the game.
If you're managing Portugal, the choice is yours. You can call him up and forget what happened, leave him on the bench on purpose to recreate the drama, or give him the farewell he never got. And if you want a save that's closer to reality, the game's editor lets you mark a player as retired from international football.
It's also possible that SI fixes it later, in one of the data updates it usually releases after launch, if there's an official decision by then. And if Ronaldo really does return to the national team after the meeting with Jesus and Proença, then FM27 will have got it right by accident.
Unlikely, but not impossible
It's unlikely we'll see Ronaldo in a Portugal shirt again. At 41, after walking out of a camp like that and with the manager making it clear who's in charge, a comeback looks difficult. But with Ronaldo we've learned never to say never. And until there's an official full stop, FM27 will let you write your own version of the story.
The last chance to manage the GOAT
And even if, in your save, Ronaldo ends up leaving the national team, another door might be open. There are rumours, not yet confirmed by SI, that the Saudi league could be one of FM27's new additions: in the game's first deep dive, eagle-eyed viewers spotted the official badges of Al Hilal and Al Nassr.
If that's confirmed, this could be the last chance to manage the GOAT. Ronaldo told Vogue this will probably be the last season of his career, and his Al Nassr contract ends in 2027. In FM28 you may only find him as a coach or a club legend.
And he might not come alone. Cristiano Ronaldo Jr. turned 16 on 17 June, plays for Al Nassr's under-17s, where he's been scoring regularly, and already has nine appearances and three goals for Portugal's youth teams. At this age he can already appear in the database, so it's not out of the question that in FM27 you could have father and son playing side by side, a dream Ronaldo himself has never hidden.
What about you? If you're Portugal manager in FM27, do you call up Ronaldo? Or would you rather head to Saudi Arabia and manage father and son at Al Nassr? Let us know in the comments.
Read also
Muito bom