The UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers are set to begin on Thursday, March 23, with big names like Cristiano Ronaldo joining their national teams to qualify for the European championship. Ahead of Portugal’s opener against Liechtenstein, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner has shared photos from the team’s training session.
Ronaldo last played for Portugal in the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar, where A Selecao lost in the quarter-finals to Morocco. With only one day until Portugal’s first match against Liechtenstein at the José Alvalade Stadium, Roberto Martnez’s team has started training. Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo is “very happy” to be returning to national duty, as evidenced by photos of him smiling with teammates such as Diogo Dalot, Raphael Leao, and Danilo Pereira.
Here is Cristiano Ronaldo’s post
Muito feliz por voltar à nossa seleção e poder representar novamente Portugal!???? pic.twitter.com/TuVSZ4D8as
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) March 21, 2023
Ronaldo holds the record for most European men’s football caps (196) and the Portuguese captain is only four matches away from reaching the 200-cap mark for his national team. Portugal is in Group J of the UEFA Euro 2024 Qualifiers, alongside Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Slovakia. Following their opener against Liechtenstein on Thursday, Portugal will face Luxembourg at the Luxembourg Stadium on Sunday, March 26.
In the meantime, the most followed person on Instagram, the Portuguese superstar, now has 564 million followers on the Meta-owned social network. Ronaldo’s star continues to rise despite the fact that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is now playing for Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.
He did not gain the most Instagram followers in the last month, but the 38-year-global old’s appeal cannot be overlooked. While Ronaldo’s brand continues to grow, Lionel Messi‘s Instagram followers have dropped by over 570,000 in the last 30 days. His struggles at Paris Saint-Germain, as well as questions about his future in France, are thought to have contributed to that drop, with the World Cup-winning Argentine now sitting on 443 million followers.
