Chaos in Portugal: Cristiano Ronaldo Breaks His Silence: “I’ll Tell the Truth”
Cristiano Ronaldo tells his side of the story after confirming that he left Portugal’s training camp on Wednesday; the team is set to face Denmark on Thursday in the Nations League. This comes after a press conference by head coach Jorge Jesus and a discussion with the Portuguese Football Federation (FPF), which had initially confirmed his absence without, however, providing an explanation for why he did not participate in training.
“After the national team coach’s press conference and after speaking with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, I decided to leave the Portugal training camp,” Cristiano Ronaldo announced in a post on his official Instagram account. “In due course, I will tell all Portuguese people the truth about the reasons that led me to leave the national team, to which I have always dedicated my all.”
In an already delicate situation, chaos erupted following Jorge Jesus’ remarks at a press conference, in which the head coach commented in no uncertain terms on his handling of the star player: “I’m the coach; I told the player he wouldn’t play. I’ll put you on the bench. If I need you for 30 minutes, you’ll play; otherwise, you won’t. No player will ever make me change my mind. Not him, nor anyone else in the world of soccer. Not even a president. Never, not a chance.” Jesus had also revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo would once again take a seat on the bench against Denmark, leaving the starting spot to Gonçalo Ramos.
The situation had already been tense for days. It all began after the match against Norway, in which CR7 had spent the entire 90 minutes on the bench without ever entering the game, despite an agreement with the coach to bring him on for the final half-hour of play. At the final whistle, Ronaldo made no secret of his frustration, heading straight to the locker room without greeting the fans. From that moment on, the 41-year-old had stopped training regularly with the team, limiting himself to gym sessions at the training camp in Malmö. Wednesday’s session at Parken in Copenhagen also took place without him: the Portuguese captain left the stadium in an FPF van while his teammates trained under Jesus.
In an attempt to calm the waters, Jesus had tried to downplay the training absences: “He didn’t refuse to train. Cristiano did some work in the gym, did some mobility exercises on the field, and then did some additional muscle-strengthening work at the hotel. That’s exactly what happened. He’ll train today, and if you come to watch the training session, you’ll see him training, because today is the fourth day.” This prediction was proven wrong, as Ronaldo once again sat out before announcing his departure from training camp.
Pedro Proença, president of the Portuguese Football Federation, also stepped in to try to defuse the situation, flying to Copenhagen with the aim of mediating between the parties. On Tuesday evening, Ronaldo and Jesus had a face-to-face meeting which, according to reports from A Bola, ended on a positive note. The apparent thaw, however, did not hold up in the face of the coach’s public statements the following day. On the team front, the only positive note of the day was João Félix’s return to the squad, while Francisco Conceição was ruled out for the match against Denmark.
