The dream that remains unfulfilled

The 2026 World Cup kicked off last week, and few teams are approaching their opening match surrounded by as much expectation as Portugal.

The team is competing in its ninth World Cup with a generation that, on paper, is one of the most talented in its history. The squad features several players who have been nominated for the Ballon d’Or, such as Bruno Fernandes, Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, João Neves, Bernardo Silva and, of course, Cristiano Ronaldo, a five-time winner of the award.

Sixty years after their World Cup debut, Portugal remain in pursuit of a goal that is still missing from their history: lifting the trophy. The closest the team came to realising that dream was in 1966, when Eusébio, winner of the Ballon d’Or the previous year, led the team to third place.

Portugal’s World Cup record

It was also in that tournament that the Portuguese recorded their best scoring record in a single World Cup, with 17 goals.

Throughout their history in the tournament, Portugal have scored 61 goals, shared among 28 different players, as well as benefiting from three own goals scored by opponents.

At the top of the list of Portuguese World Cup top scorers is Eusébio. In his only appearance in the tournament, in 1966, he scored nine times and finished as the top scorer of that edition. The record remains unbroken to this day.

Cristiano Ronaldo with his sights set on history

But Cristiano Ronaldo heads into the 2026 tournament with the chance to change that. At 41, the striker is competing in his sixth World Cup and continues to pursue two of the greatest possible goals: to surpass Eusébio’s record and lead Portugal to their first-ever World Cup title.

The Portuguese national team’s all-time leading scorer, with 143 goals, Ronaldo has scored seven goals in World Cups. To equal Eusébio’s tally, he needs to find the net twice in this tournament. To take sole possession of the top spot, he needs three. It is a goal well within his reach: in 2018, for example, he scored four goals in a single tournament.

The goalscorers of the new generation

As well as Ronaldo, four other players called up by Roberto Martínez for the 2026 World Cup have already made their mark on the tournament: Gonçalo Ramos, with three goals, Bruno Fernandes and Rafael Leão, with two each, and João Félix, with one.

Ramos’s three goals all came in a single match, the 6-1 victory over Switzerland in the round of 16 at the 2022 World Cup. Despite the historic rout, this is not the match in which Portugal have scored the most goals in the tournament’s history. That record belongs to the 7–0 victory over North Korea in 2010.

What can we expect from Portugal in 2026?

With a squad brimming with talent and what could be Cristiano Ronaldo’s last chance to win the World Cup, the eyes of the world will be on Portugal.

How far will Martínez’s team go in 2026? How many goals will they score? Which records will stand? And which might be broken?

It is from this week onwards that these stories begin to be written.