MUNICH (AP) — Another trophy for Cristiano Ronaldo. More records, more adulation.
The Portugal star shed tears after helping his team win the Nations League on Sunday.
Ronaldo scored to help Portugal draw level with Spain 2-2 in the final, then watched as his teammates won the penalty shootout 5-3.
“I have many titles with my clubs, but nothing is better than winning for Portugal,” Ronaldo said. “These are tears. It’s mission accomplished and so much joy.”
The 40-year-old Ronaldo had been the first to run out onto the field for the pre-game warmup, sparking a huge roar from the Portugal supporters, including many wearing jerseys emblazoned with his name.
His appearance prompted many supporters to pull out their cell phones to record the superstar while they could still see him in action. Ronaldo conceded Saturday that he won’t be able to play forever.
That was three days after he helped Portugal to its first win over Germany for 25 years, scoring the winner for a 2-1 victory in the Nations League semifinals.
On Sunday he was driving the team again, though it was initially a frustrating game as his chances were limited by Spain’s hard-working defenders.
Nuno Mendes fired Portugal level after Martin Zubimendi opened the scoring for Spain. Then Mikel Oyarzabal put Spain ahead 2-1 at the break.
But Ronaldo was in the right place at the right time to fire home the equalizer from Mendes’ deflected cross in the 61st, setting off joyous scenes among his faithful fans. It was Ronaldo’s 138th goal for Portugal. Nobody has ever scored more for their country.
Ronaldo kept trying in what was his record-extending 221st appearance for the country, but eventually had to go off exhausted in the 88th to standing ovations from fans and a hug from coach Roberto Martínez.
Ronaldo said he was carrying an injury into the game.
“I had already felt it during the warmup, I had been feeling it for some time, but for the national team, if I had to break my leg, I would have broken it,” Ronaldo said. “It’s for a trophy, I had to play and I gave it my all.”
Ronaldo’s future is uncertain as his contract with Saudi club Al-Nassr only runs to the end of June. He posted “this chapter is over” on social media after the club's last Saudi Pro League game of the season.
On Saturday he said he had all but decided not to go to the Club World Cup despite “quite a few” offers from participating clubs to play there.
Whatever club Ronaldo plays for, he will keep striving for Portugal.
“I have lived in many countries, I have played for many clubs, but when it’s about Portugal, it is always a special feeling,” he said.
AP Sports Writer Tales Azzoni contributed to this report.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo lifts the trophy after winning the Nations League soccer championship at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after winning the Nations League soccer championship at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Probst)
Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo holds the trophy after winning the Nations League soccer championship at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany, Sunday, June 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
NEW YORK (AP) — Ten years ago, Kim Gordon — a revolutionary force in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, the ’80s New York no wave scene and the space between art and noise — debuted solo music. At the time, she was already decades into a celebrated, mixed-medium creative career.
The midtempo “Murdered Out” was her first single, where clangorous, overdubbed guitars met the unmistakable rasp of her deadpan intonations. It was a surprise from an experimentalist well-versed in the unexpected: The song took inspiration from Los Angeles car culture, and its main collaborator was the producer Justin Raisen, then best known for his pop work with Sky Ferreira and Charli XCX. Their partnership has continued in the decade since, and on March 13, Gordon will drop her third solo album, “Play Me,” announced Wednesday alongside the release of a hazy, transcendent single, “Not Today.”
“It was a happy accident,” she says of her continued work with Raisen. “In the beginning, I was somewhat skeptical of working with a producer and collaborator, really. But it’s turned out to be incredibly freeing.”
“Play Me” follows Gordon's critically lauded, beat-heavy 2024 album “The Collective,” a noisy body of work that featured oddball trap blasts. It earned her two Grammy nominations — a career first — for alternative music album and alternative music performance. Those were for the song “Bye Bye,” with its eerie, dissonant beat originally written for rapper Playboi Carti. For “Play Me,” Gordon reimagined the track for the closer, “Bye Bye 25!” She says it was the result of her thinking about the rap world, where revisiting and remixing is commonplace.
“I came up with the idea of using these words that Trump had sort of ‘banned’ in his mind,” she says of the new song's lyrics. (An example: “Injustice / Opportunity / Dietary guidelines / Housing for the future.” President Donald Trump’s administration associates the terms with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, which it has vowed to root out across the government.) For Gordon, because it became “more conceptual … the remake doesn’t seem as anxiety-provoking as the original.”
There is a connective spirit between “The Collective” and “Play Me” — a shared confrontation, propulsive production and songs that possess a keen ability to process and reflect the world around Gordon. “It does feel kind of like an evolution,” she says of this album next to her last. “It’s sort of a more focused record, and immediate.” The songs are shorter and attentive.
Or, to put it more simply: “I like beats and that inspires me more than melodies,” she says. “Beats and space.”
That palette drives “Play Me,” a foundation in which staccato lyricism transforms and offers astute criticism. Consider the title track, which challenges passive listening and the devaluation of music in the age of streaming. She names Spotify playlist titles, imagined genres defined by mood rather than music. “Rich popular girl / Villain mode” she speak-sings, “Jazz and background / Chillin' after work.”
“It's just representative of, you know, this era we're in, this culture of convenience,” she says. “Music always represented a certain amount of freedom to me, and it feels like that’s kind of been blanketed over.”
Sonically, it is a message delivered atop a '70s groove, placing it in conversation with an era unshackled from these digital technologies.
The title, too, “is playing off the sort of passive nature of listening to music,” she says, “But also it could be seen as defiant. Like, I dare you to play me.”
There's also the blown-out “Subcon,” which examines the world's growing billionaire class and their fascination with space colonialization in a period of economic insecurity. In the song, Gordon's lyrical abstractions highlight the absurdity, taking aim at technocrats.
“I find reality inspirational, no matter how bad it is,” she says. Where some artists might veer away from the news, Gordon tackles truth. “I’m not sure what music is supposed to be. So, I’m just doing my version of it.”
In the end, she hopes listeners are “somewhat thrilled by” the album.
“'This is the music that I’ve wanted to hear,’ kind of feeling. Does that sound egotistical? I don’t know,” she laughs. If it is, it is earned.
1. “Play Me”
2. “Girl with a Look”
3. “No Hands”
4. “Black Out”
5. “Dirty Tech”
6. “Not Today”
7. “Busy Bee”
8. “Square Jaw”
9. “Subcon”
10. “Post Empire”
11. “Nail Bitter”
12. “Bye Bye 25!”
Kim Gordon poses for a portrait in New York on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)
Kim Gordon poses for a portrait in New York on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025. (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)
Kim Gordon poses for a portrait on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in New York (Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP)
