Portugal Confirms Carlos Forbs as the New No. 7 for Nations League Clash With Denmark

Portugal opens a new chapter on Saturday, hosting Denmark in Braga in the fifth round of the Nations League — its first match since Cristiano Ronaldo retired from international football. The famous No. 7 shirt he wore for so long will not sit empty, with the federation already confirming who will wear it.

That player is Carlos Forbs, listed with the No. 7 on the official team sheet released by UEFA. The 22-year-old winger of Club Brugge inherits the number from Ronaldo despite not yet having appeared in this edition of the Nations League.

The decision has a practical explanation: squads must be assigned numbers from 1 to 23 for this competition, so someone had to take the No. 7. Rafael Leao, the natural candidate for the shirt, is unavailable through injury for both of Portugal’s matches in this window.

The assignment is therefore expected to be temporary. Forbs has worn the shirt before, but Leao is the player likely to claim it on a permanent basis once he returns. Before kickoff, though, the number will belong to everyone, as the entire squad is set to walk onto the pitch in No. 7 jerseys as a tribute to Ronaldo.

Portugal’s official squad list for the Denmark match. (uefa.com)

Portugal’s No. 7: The players who wore it before and after Ronaldo

Before Ronaldo, the shirt belonged to Luis Figo, who wore it at the 1996, 2000, and 2004 European Championships as well as the 2002 and 2006 World Cups. Apart from Figo and Ronaldo, only three Portuguese players have worn the number at a major tournament: Figueiredo at the 1966 World Cup, Carlos Manuel at Euro 1984, and Jaime Pacheco at the 1986 World Cup.

After the 2006 World Cup, Ronaldo took over the number and kept it for the rest of his career, two decades in total. He wore it at five World Cups, from 2010 to 2026, at five European Championships, from 2008 to 2024, and at the 2019 and 2025 Nations League finals. It changed hands only in the rare matches he missed, when other players were given the chance to wear it.

Gonçalo Guedes did so in friendlies against Mexico and the United States earlier this year, Forbs wore it in the 9-1 win over Armenia in 2025, and Leao used it in the matches against Denmark and Norway last month, when Ronaldo left the national team’s camp.

Ronaldo’s retirement closes a chapter that lasted nearly two decades, and the No. 7 now begins a new one. Forbs will carry it in Braga as a short-term solution, with Leao expected to take over later, but the real question for Portugal is who can do justice to a shirt that rarely belonged to anyone else and that carries the weight of two of the greatest names the national team has ever produced.

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