LISBON (AP) — Cristiano Ronaldo is set to make a record sixth World Cup appearance after being included in Portugal's squad for the tournament on Tuesday, and coach Roberto Martínez also included the late Diogo Jota as a “plus one forever” in a tribute to the player who died last year.
Martínez said Jota will be on everyone’s minds when the national team tries to win soccer’s showcase event for the first time. The 28-year-old Jota, a regular in Portugal’s squad, was killed in a car crash in Spain last July.
Click to Gallery
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez announces the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez announces the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez calls the name of Cristiano Ronaldo when announcing the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
FILE - Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring at the King Saud University Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)
FILE - Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during a World Cup 2026 group F qualifying soccer match between Portugal and Hungary in Lisbon, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
“The final list includes 27 names plus one,” Martínez said. “To lose Diogo Jota was an unforgettable moment and a very difficult moment. But the next day it was a responsibility for all of us to fight for Diogo Jota's dream and for the example that he was in our national team. The spirit, the strength, the example of Diogo Jota, the plus one. He will be the plus one forever.”
Martínez picked the 41-year-old Ronaldo and 26 other players to try to give Portugal its first World Cup title.
It will likely be Ronaldo's final attempt at winning soccer's most coveted trophy. It will be his first World Cup since he left elite soccer in Europe to play in Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo and his great rival Lionel Messi of Argentina could become the first men to play in six World Cups.
“When we talk about Cristiano Ronaldo, we talk about two players,” Martínez said. “We talk about the icon of world soccer and we talk about the player, our captain, who has the same demands as the other players, the competitiveness to be in the national team. Our captain is an example. We want him to continue with the same level of responsibility and leadership inside the locker room.”
Ronaldo is the all-time leader in appearances (226) and goals (143) for a men’s national team. He is also the only man to have scored in five World Cups.
Ronaldo told CNN in November that this one “definitely” would be his last World Cup.
Also included in the list were Ronaldo's Al Nassr teammate João Félix, Manchester City's Bernardo Silva and Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes. Paris Saint-Germain's Nuno Mendes, Vitinha, João Neves and Gonçalo Ramos also made the list.
The final World Cup squads can only have a maximum of 26 players, but Martínez included Ricardo Velho as a fourth-choice goalkeeper who will only take part in case there is an injury to the other three. Martínez said he spoke personally to nearly all the players he left out.
Portugal is in Group K along with Colombia, Uzbekistan and Congo. Portugal opens against Congo on June 17 in Houston.
Martínez said Portugal can be considered a title candidate but should not be included among the favorites.
“The World Cup is not about playing well, not about having talent," he said. "There are many challenges. I think only a national team that has already won the World Cup can be a favorite. We welcome the pressure, it's not a problem, but I think 'candidate' is probably a better word to describe the good moment that we've been going through.”
Portugal won the 2025 Nations League by beating host Germany in the semifinals and Spain in the final.
“Considering the talent and the spirit of our group, we all can dream," Martínez said. "We can dream, yes, and be a candidate, but not a favorite.”
Portugal will begin its preparations on June 1. It will have warmup matches against Chile on June 6 and Nigeria on June 10. It will travel to the United States on June 12.
Portugal squad:
Goalkeepers: Diogo Costa (Porto), José Sá (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Rui Silva (Sporting Lisbon), Ricardo Velho ( Gençlerbirliği)
Defenders: Rúben Dias (Manchester City), João Cancelo (Barcelona), Diogo Dalot (Manchester United), Nuno Mendes (Paris Saint-Germain), Nélson Semedo (Fenerbahce), Matheus Nunes (Manchester City), Gonçalo Inácio (Sporting Lisbon), Renato Veiga (Villarreal), Tomás Araújo (Benfica)
Midfielders: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Bernardo Silva (Manchester City), Vitinha (PSG), João Neves (PSG), Rúben Neves (Al Hilal), Samú Costa (Mallorca)
Forwards: Cristiano Ronaldo (Al Nassr), Rafael Leão (AC Milan), João Félix (Al Nassr), Gonçalo Ramos (PSG), Pedro Neto (Chelsea), Francisco Conceição (Juventus), Gonçalo Guedes (Real Sociedad), Francisco Trincão (Sporting Lisbon).
AP World Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/fifa-world-cup
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez announces the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez announces the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
Portugal's head coach Roberto Martinez calls the name of Cristiano Ronaldo when announcing the squad for the 2026 World Cup, in Oeiras, outside Lisbon, Tuesday, May 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)
FILE - Al Nassr's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring at the King Saud University Stadium, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 19, 2023. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, file)
FILE - Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo celebrates after scoring during a World Cup 2026 group F qualifying soccer match between Portugal and Hungary in Lisbon, Oct. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Secretary of State Marco Rubio pledged Thursday that the U.S. would not take military action against narcotics traffickers in Latin American countries without the approval of its allies, even as the Trump administration keeps up a yearlong campaign of deadly strikes against alleged drug boats in international waters.
Standing next to new Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori, Rubio told reporters that while the U.S. has “the capacity to act unilaterally," it would rather work with its allies because that is “the most effective way to do it."
His comments came shortly after Fujimori announced that Peru had joined the “Shield of the Americas," a U.S.-led coalition of like-minded countries in the region to carry out joint military operations against drug cartels. Colombia, where Rubio also stopped this week, also recently joined the group under new President Abelardo de la Espriella.
“We’re not going to do anything that our partners don’t ask us to do," Rubio said Thursday. “We don’t want to do less than what you ask of us, but we’re not going to do more than what you ask of us.”
During his fifth trip to Latin America to further cement the Trump administration’s security partnerships with conservative leaders, Rubio this week acknowledged an evolving U.S. strategy to combating drug trafficking in Latin American waters. He said the administration would be working with allied countries and aligning with their laws but also insisted the military will “still blow up ships if need be” and the approach would “a strike-by-strike or operation-by-operation determination.”
After his comments Wednesday, the U.S. military said it carried out another deadly strike against those it called “narcoterrorists” operating a boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing three people. Recently, the military has been carrying out joint operations mainly with Ecuador in its territorial waters, where people have been removed from vessels accused of aiding drug trafficking and transferred to Ecuadorian authorities.
Rubio also visited Colombia and Ecuador this week as part of a tour of Trump-friendly, conservative-led countries as the administration steps up its counternarcotics and immigration efforts throughout the Western Hemisphere. Reestablishing U.S. dominance in the region has been a priority for the Trump administration.
Fujimori said Thursday alongside Rubio that “a new era in relations between Peru and the United States is beginning.” She emphasized that Peru’s “sovereignty remains intact” and said the country would continue trading with nations in Asia and Europe.
Fujimori said Peru’s entry into the Shield of the Americas group “will allow us to obtain information more quickly and act decisively” against cross-border crime. She noted that the United States helped Peru combat drug trafficking in the 1990s, adding that “we have already shown what two countries can achieve by working together.”
Like her counterparts in Colombia and Ecuador, Fujimori has prioritized the fight against crime in Peru, especially crimes such as extortion and murder. Reports of extortion rose from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025, according to official data.
At the end of August, Peru declared a 60-day state of emergency in Lima and the port of Callao due to the rise in crime and created a committee of officials to coordinate the police. It also declared a state of emergency in five prisons, seeking to control access and prevent escapes.
Peru is one of the world’s leading producers of cocaine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. It is the second-largest cultivator of coca leaf — the raw material for cocaine — only after Colombia, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Trump's administration has put a focus on the Western Hemisphere even as it has launched a war against Iran. Trump has spoken numerous times of reinvoking the 19th-century Monroe Doctrine, asserting U.S. primacy in the Americas with a focus on drugs, migration and not least countering growing Chinese influence in the region.
The Chinese Embassy in Peru said Tuesday that the “Western Hemisphere is nobody’s ‘backyard,’” in a statement that did not name Rubio but was issued on the eve of his visit. China noted that Latin American countries have the “sovereign right to freely choose their partners” and expressed its willingness to work with Peru and other countries in the region.
Peru also has had a long history of dealing with left-wing insurgencies and still has a sizable number of people sympathetic to such causes.
As Rubio arrived in Lima late Wednesday, hundreds of people protested in Lima, chanting “Yankees out of Peru,” and members of the Communist Party waved red flags and a banner with Rubio’s face.
“Marco Rubio arrived in Peru today, and what he wants is for Peru to be his colony," Carmen Espinoza told The Associated Press. “That’s why we’re here protesting, rejecting the visit of an enemy of Peru.”
The demonstration was peaceful and was monitored by police officers who sought to prevent any potential disturbances.
Soledad Lozano, one of the protesters, said Peru “is not the backyard of any country in the world” and argued that Peruvians should decide “with whom we ally ourselves and what agreements we make.”
Suarez reported from Bogota, Colombia. Associated Press writers Farnoush Amiri in New York and Meg Kinnard in Columbia, South Carolina, contributed to this report.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio talks at the American Chamber of Commerce of Peru in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio gives a joint news conference with Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori at the presidential palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, Pool)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, right, and Peruvian President Keiko Fujimori shake hands after a joint news conference at the presidential palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Sept. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, Pool)
U.S. Sec. of State Marco Rubio speaks to the press outside the U.S. embassy in Quito, Ecuador, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa, Pool)
People protest the visit of U.S. Sec. of State Marco Rubio in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
People protest the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
People protest the visit of U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, second right, and his wife Jeanette Rubio, right, deplane at a military base in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia, Pool)
