Mexico City will get an early taste of World Cup fever in late March when Ronaldo, one of the world’s greatest soccer players, trots onto the newly renovated pitch at Estadio Banorte to lead his Portugal side in a friendly match against Mexico’s national team.
In one of the final warm-ups for both squads ahead of next year’s World Cup, Portugal, No. 6 in the FIFA World Rankings, will help the Mexican Soccer Federation celebrate the reopening of the iconic stadium.
For decades known as Estadio Azteca and nicknamed the Colossus of Santa Úrsula (the southern Mexico City neighborhood where it sits), the stadium has been closed for nearly a year for extensive improvements, such as new seating, renovated hospitality areas and upgraded media facilities, in preparation for the World Cup.
The financial group Banorte bought naming rights in March 2025 to fund the repairs, but the venue will be known as Mexico City Stadium during the June 11-July 19, 2026, soccer tournament, in accordance with a FIFA policy that prevents World Cup stadiums from having non-sponsor corporate names.
Regardless of what it’s called, the stadium will become the first venue to host matches at three World Cups, after Mexico staged the tournament in 1970 and 1986. As co-host of the 2026 tournament alongside the U.S. and Canada, Mexico will play host to 13 World Cup matches: five in Mexico City and four each in Monterrey and Guadalajara.
The March 28 friendly will be Ronaldo’s first competitive match in Mexico and the sixth meeting between the two nations. El Tri is 0-3-2 vs the Europeans, including a 2-1 overtime loss in the third-place match of the 2017 Confederations Cup in Moscow.
¡Ya es una realidad! 🤩🏟️
Incondicionales, nos enfrentaremos a Portugal, el país de Cristiano Ronaldo, para celebrar que nuestra casa volverá a abrir sus puertas. 🇲🇽🆚🇵🇹
Rival de lujo para seguirnos preparando de cara a la Copa del Mundo.#SomosMéxico. 💚🤍❤️ pic.twitter.com/RhIsjlv4X7
— Selección Nacional (@miseleccionmx) December 2, 2025
Mexico, ranked No. 15 in the world despite being winless in its last six matches (0-4-2), has not won since defeating Team USA 2-1 in the Gold Cup final on July 6.
Since taking the reins of Mexico’s national squad for the third time on July 22, 2024, Javier “El Vasco” Aguirre has guided El Tri to a 12-5-4 record marred by a 4-0 trouncing at the hands of Colombia in October, an embarrassing loss to Argentine club side River Plate and a listless 2-1 setback against Paraguay last month.
This will be the third World Cup for Aguirre, who in previous stints led El Tri to the Round of 16 at Korea/Japan in 2002 and at South Africa 2010.
Tickets for the Portugal-Mexico clash will be available for purchase via Ticketmaster beginning Friday, Dec. 10.
With reports from Reuters, Infobae, ESPN and Olympics.com
