The U.S. men’s national team is reportedly working to line up a friendly against Portugal in what will be one of their final friendlies before the 2026 World Cup on home soil, a match that would mark Cristiano Ronaldo’s first match in the U.S. since 2014.
The friendly would be slated for the international break in late March and will likely take place at Mercedes-Benz Arena, home of MLS’ Atlanta United and the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, according to Fox Sports. The 71,000-seater is on the list of venues for the 2026 World Cup and is slated to host one of the competition’s semifinal matches, while the match could coincide with the opening of U.S. Soccer’s $200 million training facility in the Atlanta suburb of Fayetteville.
U.S. Soccer could also line up a friendly against Belgium during that international window, according to The Athletic, while a report from French outlet L’Equipe says 2018 World Cup winners France are also contemplating a match against the USMNT during that window. Those matches may reportedly also be played in NFL venues on the east coast, offering a chance for teams that are expected to qualify for the World Cup to get a taste of the host nation’s facilities before the tournament begins.
The USMNT are hoping to spend the last months before the World Cup testing themselves against high-caliber opponents in friendlies, potentially lining up a schedule that will almost exclusively feature teams who rank inside FIFA’s top 30. The list includes June friendlies against Turkiye, against whom they lost 2-1, and Switzerland, against whom they notched a 5-0 defeat, and Saturday’s match against South Korea, which ended in a 2-0 win for the visitors. Tuesday’s opponent Japan, as well as upcoming foes Ecuador, Australia and Uruguay are also ranked in the top 30, and the same goes for the USMNT’s potential European foes in March.
“I think it was very challenging for us,” USMNT head coach Mauricio Pochettino said after the defeat to South Korea, underscoring the point of facing top-tier opposition in the process. “The highest level that we face, it’s more risk because I think maybe we are going to struggle to get the result at the moment but I think we are going to learn more.”
Portugal, currently ranked sixth in the world, are a World Cup regular and reached the quarterfinals of the 2022 tournament and are a few months removed from winning the 2024-25 UEFA Nations League. The team is full of players who play for some of Europe’s most notable clubs like Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Paris Saint-Germain’s Vitinha, but Ronaldo remains the team’s focal point at 40 years old.
Ronaldo has never played for a U.S.-based club teams but many of the world’s most notable players swing by the country from time to time, chiefly on preseason tours with their European club teams. The Portugal international, though, has not played in the country since making a substitute appearance for Real Madrid in a friendly against Manchester United at Michigan Stadium in August 2014. None of Ronaldo’s club teams since – a list that includes Madrid, Juventus, United and Al-Nassr – made preseason journeys to the U.S. while he was on their books, while Portugal has not played in the country since a friendly earlier that summer against Ireland at MetLife Stadium.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s legal troubles in the U.S.
Ronaldo has also not been photographed in the U.S. since 2017, when German newspaper Der Spiegel revealed allegations that he raped model Kathryn Mayorga in Las Vegas in 2009. The player and his team have repeatedly denied the allegations, though Ronaldo’s and Mayorga’s legal representatives have since engaged in a years-long legal battle.
Mayorga said she went to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department the following day to file a complaint but did not name her assailant or identify the location of the incident, fearful of public backlash. In the weeks that followed, Mayorga began civil proceedings against Ronaldo and lawyers who represented her were in contact with the player’s legal team. Ronaldo allegedly filled out a series of questionnaires, and according to documents seen by Der Spiegel, he said sex was consensual, but he was quoted as saying that “she said no and stop several times” and that he apologized afterwards, according to The Athletic.
In January 2010, Mayorga, her family and legal representatives met with Ronaldo’s legal team in Las Vegas – the player was not present – and the parties agreed to an out-of-court settlement. Ronaldo would pay Mayorga $375,000 in exchange for Mayorga never making the allegations public knowledge. “This agreement is by no means a confession of guilt,” Ronaldo’s representatives said in part in a 2018 statement.
Upon the allegations becoming public in 2017, Mayorga hired a new lawyer who tried to have the “settlement and non-disclosure agreement declared void.” Police in Las Vegas reopened the case in September 2018 and by January 2019, they sent a warrant for a DNA sample from Ronaldo and according to court documents, the sample matched evidence from the case, per ESPN.
By then, investigators had struggled to continue with the case for a number of reasons. They were unable to independently verify the documents that were published on Football Leaks and then later reported on by Der Spiegel, and British police failed to cooperate in relation to a 2005 rape allegation against Ronaldo, though INTERPOL confirmed that he was arrested 18 days after the accusation. Mayorga’s attorneys also did not respond to requests from investigators during this time. The Clark County District Attorney’s office then opted not to file charges, saying “the allegations of sexual assault against Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Mayorga also filed a case in state court in September 2018 that was then moved to federal court the following year, the case eventually dismissed by a judge in June 2022. The lawyer representing Mayorga was later ordered to pay Ronaldo $334,637.50 in legal fees for using stolen documents in a lawsuit, with Mayorga and her legal representatives withdrawing their appeal against the payment in May 2024.
