Cristiano Ronaldo left Portugal’s national team training camp in Copenhagen, Denmark.
He said he decided to leave after speaking with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation following the situation surrounding whether he would play.
However, head coach Jorge Jesus said there was no discord within the squad and maintained that it was a decision related to match management.
3-Line Summary
1. Ronaldo left the national team training camp
2. He was not brought on as a substitute against Norway
3. The two sides gave differing explanations regarding the decision on his playing
Ronaldo Came to the Copenhagen Training Ground and Then Left
Portugal captain Ronaldo left the camp on Wednesday without taking part in the team training scheduled at Parken Stadium in Copenhagen, Denmark. He wrote on social media that he would tell the Portuguese people why he left at “the appropriate time” and wished the national team and his teammates good luck.
According to a report by the British daily The Guardian, Ronaldo arrived at the stadium on the team bus but did not join the on-pitch training after coach Jesus’s press conference. The Portuguese Football Federation also briefly confirmed only that Ronaldo had not trained.
As Ronaldo has not yet specifically disclosed the reason, it is too early to draw a definitive conclusion about the circumstances surrounding his departure from the camp. What is clear so far is that he left the national team and that the decision came immediately after the coach announced his selection plans.
The Norway Match on the Bench and the Next Selection Plan
Coach Jesus did not name Ronaldo in the starting lineup for the Nations League match against Norway and did not bring him on as a substitute at any point during the match. Portugal won 2-1 in Oslo, but The Guardian reported that Ronaldo went straight to the locker room after the match instead of joining his teammates as they greeted the spectators.
The coach explained that before the match, he had told Ronaldo that he was not in the starting lineup and that he might play late in the match. He said that not using any substitutes was a match-management decision he had made, and that it was natural for a player not to be satisfied if he warmed up but was unable to play.
Coach Jesus said he planned not to start Ronaldo against Denmark either. Instead, he said he would start Gonçalo Ramos, who scored the winning goal against Norway, and the forward from Italian club AC Milan. This was the coach’s plan at the time and does not indicate the actual match result or whether Ronaldo later played.
The Coach Denied Reports of Discord
Although some Portuguese media outlets raised the possibility that Ronaldo had refused to train, coach Jesus denied it. He explained that Ronaldo had done individual exercises for mobility and strength conditioning instead of taking part in the team training on Tuesday.
Marca reported that Ronaldo had shown his displeasure after preparing to play against Norway but not being brought on, and had subsequently stayed apart from team training. Jesus, however, maintained that the situation was not something to turn into a major problem. In other words, the player said he would later explain why he left, while the coach described it as a matter of match management, despite the differing interpretations of the same incident.
Ronaldo is Portugal’s most-capped and leading scorer, with 234 appearances and 146 goals for the national team. The key issue in this matter is not the records, but that the national team captain and the coach are explaining the situation differently after the decision on his playing.
References
Tags #CristianoRonaldo #Ronaldo #PortugalNationalFootballTeam #PortugalNationalTeam #JorgeJesus #NationsLeague #DenmarkMatch #NorwayMatch #GonçaloRamos #NationalTeamTraining #FootballNews #PortugalFootball