Portugal's post-Cristiano Ronaldo era is set to commence on Saturday night when Jorge Jesus' side face Denmark in the Nations League, with a new number seven set to don the famous red shirt for the first time in over 20 years.

Ronaldo announced his retirement from international football earlier this month, bringing an end to his 23-year spell as the talisman and figurehead for the Selecao as Quinas. He bows out with 146 goals and 234 caps for his nation, alongside a Euro 2016 winners' medal and two Nations League titles.

Historically, players with such legacies who become synonymous with a specific shirt number often have that shirt number retired in their honour.

However, a FIFA rule stipulates that for international tournaments organised by the global footballing body, teams are required to designate consecutive numbers for every player in the squad from 1 to 26. This regulation essentially prevents national teams from retiring a shirt, meaning players will wear number seven for Portugal after Ronaldo — Rafael Leao or Carlos Forbs is expected to wear it during this international break.

However, this hasn't prevented the European national team from concocting an inventive way around this, as they look to preserve the iconic shirt number in a tribute to their greatest-ever player.

Portugal's Genius Way to 'Retire' Number Seven

In the purest sense of the word, Portugal can't retire the number seven shirt. They cannot prevent players from wearing it in the future, but they can still do their best to ensure Ronaldo's image and brand are preserved.

Posting on their Instagram account on Saturday, the Portuguese Men's National Team shared a video revealing that from now on, they'll be printing their number seven shirts with a little cross through the middle of the number, distinguishing them from Ronaldo's crossless seven.

"Time to unveil a new 7. Because there is one that will be eternal," the caption read.

This mark of respect for Ronaldo's achievements is permitted by FIFA, as it's not eradicating the number seven from future use, but rather slightly modifying how it'll appear on the back of Portugal shirts moving forward.

Argentina reportedly had plans to retire the number ten shirt after Lionel Messi called time on his international career, but the South American nation ran into the same issue Portugal did.

Unfortunately for the 2026 World Cup finalists, there was little scope for ingenuity or invention regarding how they present the number ten shirt, so they've not been able to honour Messi in the same way. That said, Lionel Scaloni did refrain from selecting someone to wear ten during Argentina's first post-Messi match against Uruguay on Friday. Theoretically, they can keep doing this until their next tournament.