Cristiano Ronaldo has said his dream of winning a World Cup with Portugal was “beautiful while it lasted”, as the star player appeared to acknowledge this year was his last shot.

Portugal was denied a berth in the semi-finals after they suffered a 1-0 quarterfinal loss to Morocco on Saturday, where Ronaldo started on the bench for the second consecutive match at Al Thumama stadium.

“Winning a World Cup for Portugal was the biggest and most ambitious dream of my career…Fortunately, I won many titles of international dimension, including for Portugal, but putting the name of our country on the highest level in the world was my biggest dream,” the 37-year-old captioned an Instagram post on Sunday.

“I’ve scored in five World Cups over 16 years, always alongside great players and supported by millions of Portuguese people, I gave my all. I left everything on the pitch. I never turned my back on the fight and I never gave up on that dream,” he added.

Ronaldo, who is currently without a club after leaving Manchester United by mutual consent in November, will be 41 when the next World Cup begins in the US, Canada and Mexico.