{"id":153162,"date":"2025-06-02T22:04:10","date_gmt":"2025-06-02T22:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153162\/"},"modified":"2025-06-02T22:04:10","modified_gmt":"2025-06-02T22:04:10","slug":"germany-star-warns-teammates-about-cristiano-ronaldo-ahead-of-uefa-nations-league-clash-with-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/153162\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany star warns teammates about Cristiano Ronaldo ahead of UEFA Nations League clash with Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo<\/strong><\/a> may have wrapped up his 2024\u201325 campaign with Al Nassr<\/strong>, but his season is far from over. The Portuguese icon now shifts focus to the UEFA Nations League<\/a><\/strong> semifinals, where Portugal<\/strong> will face Germany<\/strong>. Ahead of the high-stakes match, one German star is urging his teammates not to overlook the 40-year-old legend<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

In what\u2019s expected to be a tightly contested matchup, Germany<\/a> captain Joshua Kimmich made it clear that Ronaldo still poses a major threat<\/strong>\u2014despite being in the final stages of his career. With six goals in the tournament, the five-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner remains a game-changer. Speaking at a pre-match press conference, Kimmich acknowledged the challenge ahead.<\/p>\n

\u201cI read that on Wednesday, Ronaldo will play his 220th international match and has scored over 130 goals for the national team. I\u2019m still quite a ways off from that<\/strong>,\u201d he said with a laugh. But Kimmich quickly shifted to a more serious tone when discussing Ronaldo\u2019s longevity at the elite level.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an absolutely insane number. To maintain that kind of consistency over more than 20 years at the highest level is truly exceptional<\/strong>. He\u2019s a very special player, performing for his country. For me, 100 caps already makes me very proud,\u201d added the 30-year-old, who will hit that milestone against Portugal.<\/p>\n

\"\" <\/p>\n

Kimmich has witnessed Ronaldo\u2019s entire career arc. In fact, when the Portuguese forward made his debut in a major tournament at Euro 2004, Kimmich was just nine years old<\/strong>, making his first steps in German soccer academies.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, facing him is always unique, because he was already playing at the top level when I was still a kid. I used to always watch him play, and now he\u2019s still out there. It\u2019s special to be able to perform at that level for so long as a professional<\/strong>,\u201d he said, both warning about Ronaldo\u2019s game-day influence and praising his career consistency.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s quest for a second Nations League title <\/p>\n

As questions continue to swirl around Ronaldo\u2019s future at Al Nassr\u2014with the Saudi club reportedly preparing a new offer to keep him<\/a><\/strong>\u2014the veteran forward has placed all focus on his next international objective: a second UEFA Nations League title.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo previously lifted the trophy in the competition\u2019s inaugural 2018\u201319 edition<\/strong>, scoring a hat trick in the semifinals. Portugal<\/strong><\/a> failed to make the final four in both the 2020\u201321 and 2022\u201323 editions, finishing second in the group stage each time.<\/p>\n

Now, Portugal has a golden opportunity to secure its third major international trophy<\/strong>. First up is Germany on Wednesday, June 4, in the semifinal. If they advance, a potential showdown against either Spain or France awaits\u2014setting the stage for what could be a legacy-defining moment for Ronaldo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo may have wrapped up his 2024\u201325 campaign with Al Nassr, but his season is far from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":153163,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[4116,2000,299,1824,5508,3046,65210],"class_list":{"0":"post-153162","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-cristiano-ronaldo","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-germany","12":"tag-nations-league","13":"tag-portugal","14":"tag-world-soccer-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114616039137279817","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153162"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153162\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/153163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}