Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal career is over, and one columnist has not held back. In a scathing opinion piece for the Daily Star, Harry Brent described Ronaldo's retirement from international football as 'a complete and utter embarrassment' and 'cowardly'. The column, published on 11 November 2026, also takes aim at Tottenham Hotspur for attempting to ban a journalist.
Ronaldo's 'cowardly' exit
Brent wrote that Ronaldo's decision to retire now is 'a bit rich considering his legs retired five years ago.' He suggested that Ronaldo jumped before he was pushed, pointing out that the announcement came hours before Portugal manager Jorge Jesus named a squad without him. Brent said: 'If you think it's a coincidence that his goodbye announcement came hours before Jorge Jesus named a Portugal squad without him in it, you're denser than the slab of Botox Ronaldo pumps into eyebrows every morning.'
The columnist also referenced Ronaldo's 2,000-word outburst about Jesus not letting him play, which was published on the same day Lionel Messi played his final match for Argentina. Brent accused Ronaldo of being a 'master manipulator' who now manipulates narratives instead of matches.
Claims of self-importance
Brent criticised Ronaldo for crowning himself the greatest footballer of all time and for claiming that goals and trophies don't matter as much as 'how he made people feel.' The columnist compared the statement's believability to 'a level-headed Liverpool fan' and argued that Ronaldo should have stepped aside years ago. He concluded that Ronaldo bows out 'in fittingly pathetic fashion – as an irrelevant, self-obsessed toddler screaming into the void while his Portugal team-mates quietly breathe a sigh of relief.'
Tottenham's journalist ban attempt
In the same column, Brent attacked Tottenham for demanding that a Brazilian journalist be stripped of his credentials. The journalist had worn an Arsenal shirt and sung songs criticising Spurs in a social media video. Brent called the reaction an 'institutional tantrum' and said it makes the club look 'more insecure than Michael Carrick's Manchester United contract.' He argued that the press box criticises clubs every week in match reports, and described Tottenham's action as 'pathetic insecurity and tinpot authoritarianism.' He also noted that the club had already spent £85million on Savio, which he called 'the silliest, most braindead thing they've done all season' had it not been for the ban attempt.
