Paris: Cristiano Ronaldo will not retire after the Euro 2016 final, Portugal manager Fernando Santos made it clear.

There have been reports about that Ronaldo may follow in the footsteps of Lionel Messi, who retired from international football following Argentina's Copa America Centenario final defeat to Chile last month.

Santos, however, believes that the Real Madrid forward will continue to play for his country long enough to attend at least one more European Championship. "Cristiano will play for another six, seven or 10 years," Santos said. "I don't know. But he certainly won't retire now."

Ronaldo scored one goal and assisted the other in Portugal's 2-0 semi-final win over Wales on Wednesday apart from scoring a crucial brace that helped Portugal avoid exit from the group phase itself. Santos said that the forward's leadership skills have been just as important to the team.

"Over the past two years, Cristiano has wanted to be better and better," Santos said. "He's angry with himself when things don't go his way.

"But his ability to captain our team is standing out now. Everyone acknowledges it now and that's the end result of his will to improve."

Santos had coached a young Ronaldo at Sporting Lisbon prior to the latter's transfer to Manchester United in 2003 and has followed his subsequent pursuit of perfection with great interest.

"I coached him 13 or 14 years ago at Sporting, but not for very long because he played on the day when the stadium [Estadio Jose Alvalade] was inaugurated. And then later, he went to Manchester and never came back," Santos said.

"He was amazing, very talented and also wanted to win. He's mentally very strong and he's a born winner.

"He wants to be the best, to be more and more perfect," Santos added.

Former England striker Gary Lineker too disagrees with all the criticism surrounding Ronaldo's struggles in international football.

Lineker insisted that Ronaldo will always hold his 'greatness' tag irrespective of how many trophies he goes on to win for Portugal.

"I have never been one of those who says Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have to win a major tournament to justify people's perception of their greatness," Lineker wrote in his column.

"But his career deserved at least major trophy for his country. He's not quite as explosive as he was, but he's still an unbelievable athlete. Added to that, his technical abilities and incredible drive makes him really, really special.

"There's always so much expectation on Ronaldo because Portugal rely on him heavily. He's a magnificent footballer. He is a phenomenal goal-scorer and his record is staggering."

Ronaldo has been sacrificing himself for the good of the team at Euro 2016, according to former Portugal international Paulo Futre.

"We know Cristiano is not fine. He's at 50 per cent of his abilities, but Cristiano is still Cristiano," Futre was quoted as saying.

"Cristiano is sacrificing himself. He's working a lot for the team and he's not angry. Against Croatia, he applauded [Ricardo] Quaresma's goal at the 117th minute. When he doesn't score, he's usually angry but not now. He works a lot and also defending well."