The dispute between Cristiano Ronaldo, captain of the Portuguese national team, and his coach Jorge Jesus has reached a deadlock after the veteran star decided to leave the training camp in Denmark ahead of the two teams' Nations League match.
The crisis began during the match against Norway, when Ronaldo sat on the bench for the entire game, despite having started the previous match against Wales and warming up for a long period during the Norway encounter without ultimately playing.
The reason behind Ronaldo's anger at Portugal's coach
According to Spanish journalist Edo Aguirre, who is close to Ronaldo, the player's dissatisfaction was not solely due to the decision to keep him on the bench, but also because of what happened after the match, when he held a meeting with Jesus and Portuguese Football Federation president Pedro Proença to contain the crisis.
Aguirre noted during his appearance on the Spanish television program "El Chiringuito" that Jesus apologized to Ronaldo during the meeting for keeping him warming up for about 30 minutes without putting him on the field, promising to admit his mistake and offer a public apology at the following press conference.
However, according to this account, what happened at the press conference was completely different, as Jesus stated that the decision to play Ronaldo or not rested solely with him, emphasizing that all players are subject to the same rules and that he does not allow any player to influence his technical decisions.
Jesus said that Ronaldo knew beforehand that he would not start the match, and that the plan was to potentially bring him on later, but he ultimately decided not to use him.
The veteran head coach also denied that the player had refused to train, confirming that Ronaldo was doing individual exercises for reasons related to movement and muscle strengthening.
According to Aguirre's account, Ronaldo felt that what was said to him during the meeting did not match Jesus's statements to the media, which the player considered a retraction of the promise he received during the attempt to resolve the dispute.
Not long after the press conference, Ronaldo made his decision to leave the national team camp, a move that came just before the match against Denmark, turning the crisis from a dressing room dispute into a public scandal threatening the future of the relationship between Portugal's captain and his new coach.
Ronaldo himself confirmed that his decision came after Jesus's press conference and following a conversation with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, but he did not reveal the full details of what happened, limiting himself to stating that he would tell the truth to the Portuguese people at the appropriate time.
Today's match schedule
