Cristiano Ronaldo may well have played his last big competitive match for his country as Portugal exited Euro 2024 on penalties against a less-than-inspiring France in Hamburg on Friday evening.

Ronaldo, who has spent over 480 minutes on the pitch in the competition, appeared exhausted at the end of it all. His carefree and jovial demeanour during the anthem some two hours before the game finished had masked the tiredness of a footballer who is well past his prime.

Ronaldo will be 41 when the next major tournament rolls around — the 2026 World Cup, jointly hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico.

Can he stick around until then? The jury is out.

He is still captain of his country — the holder of a men’s record 130 international goals and 212 international appearances.

He is still churning out full games for Portugal. The only time he didn’t complete a match at Euro 2024 was in the group stage against Georgia, when he came off in the 66th minute with Portugal assured of advancing. He played the entire 120 minutes against Slovenia and France.

And he still clearly commands the respect of his teammates and coach, Roberto Martinez.

Yet Ronaldo, who now plays his club football out of the global spotlight in Saudi Arabia, has now gone eight games without a goal in major tournaments. That takes in all five of Portugal’s matches at Euro 2024 and its final three at the World Cup in Qatar. He had 23 attempts at Euro 2024, none fructified.

On Friday evening in Hamburg, he was almost completely shackled by France centre-backs William Saliba and Dayot Upamecano, with Ronaldo’s only clear chance coming in extra time when he finally escaped his marker but couldn’t hook a shot on target from a cross from the right.

Rafael Leao made several bursts down the left but Ronaldo lacked the pace to keep up with the 25-year-old AC Milan winger. Portugal needed runners in behind but Ronaldo’s leaden feet were too slow for that.

At times, he remained offside behind the France back four, miffed at not having got the ball. On one occasion, Joao Cancelo whipped a ball that was begging to be tapped in by a Lineker-like goal poacher but all that Ronaldo managed to do was stand still on the edge of the 18-yard box.

Ronaldo converted his penalty in the shootout but it wasn’t enough.

Ironically, Portugal were much the better side — and credit for that has to go to Martinez too, because he was outfoxing Didier Deschamps’s usual counterattacking routine. But did Martinez err with his insistence that Portugal would advance with Ronaldo in a starring role? Couldn’t Goncalo Ramos or Diogo Jota been brought on to the pitch to replace Ronaldo’s tired legs? Ronaldo, after all, doesn’t really have anything left to prove, his legacy as one of the game’s greatest players is secure.

Coach Martinez said Ronaldo had yet to make a call about his international future, saying things were “too raw” and that Portugal was “suffering a defeat as a team — there are no individual decisions at this point”.

The Portugal superstar, whose tears at the end of the shootout victory against Slovenia reflected redemption having missed a penalty midway through extra time, was seen consoling Pepe, who also played potentially his final major international tournament.

A defender still excelling for his country at the age of 41, Pepe was dejected as he sobbed on the shoulder of Ronaldo in an embrace lasting about 15 seconds — two Portugal stalwarts with a combined age of 80.

“Football is very cruel,” Pepe said.

“I won’t say it publicly,” Pepe told TV station Canal 11, when asked what Ronaldo said to him. “But we feel it a lot. Contrary to what many people think, we feel it a lot.

“We feel the frustration of not winning a game, of being eliminated in such a big competition as the European Championship, knowing that we had a lot of quality to go through. That’s the pain we feel.”

Martinez echoed those thoughts, saying “the tears are tears of frustration”.

“When you play against better opposition, there are no tears but this is hard to accept,” he said.

Ronaldo finishes his European Championship career with a record 14 goals. That’s five more than his nearest rival, Michel Platini, who scored all of his at one tournament — Euro 1984 — including two hat-tricks.

Ronaldo is the only player to go to six editions of the European Championship, having won the title in 2016 — when Portugal beat France in the final. He had scored at each one before arriving in Germany.

Euro 2024, however, proved to be a bridge too far.