The Portuguese national team captain, Cristiano Ronaldo, has opened up about what transpired that strained his relationship with coach Jorge Jesus.
Recall that Ronaldo abruptly left the Portuguese team training camp during the ongoing UEFA Nations League following a fallout with the coach after he refused to bring him on during their match against Norway.
After leaving the camp, Ronaldo said he was going to reveal what led to his exit from the camp when the time was right, after Jesus comment during a press briefing, where he said he was the coach and he would only use players that would get him the results he needed.
In a statement on Tuesday where he chronicled what happened, Ronaldo said he left the training camp because the coach refused to honour the promise he made to him.
Read the full statement below
On the day the current head coach was presented, I was genuinely happy with the choice. It was the right option, as the results are confirming.
A few days later, I received a first contact from the new national team coach saying he would like to meet me in person. I said yes, and we scheduled it for the end of my holidays.
We met at the Cidade do Futebol, where my club was holding its pre-season training camp.
That day the coach told me he was counting on me and that my presence was fundamental to his project. He presented me, right there, with a plan for my participation. He told me I would play the first match and the last one, and that for reasons of physical management he would always make three to four changes per match.
At that point he raised the possibility of me not travelling with the national team to Norway and Denmark. He proposed that I play the first match and stay in Portugal, then rejoin before the match at the Dragão.
I refused this proposal immediately. It seemed obvious to me that I could not accept it. It was not because I would not play the matches abroad that I would stop captaining our team. That privilege of staying in Portugal would not be a good example. The coach ended up agreeing with my analysis.
On the eve of the start of the camp, the coach came to my house in Lisbon, at his request, for another conversation with me. The conversation was calm, and all the principles agreed in August were maintained.
I played the match at Alvalade and, although substituted, I made no problem of it. I put the armband on Bruno Fernandes myself, far from imagining that I might be taking my last steps as a player and captain of the National Team. What mattered to me that day was our victory. Winning is always good; in Portugal and for my country, even better.
At lunchtime on the day of the match in Norway, an assistant to the coach came to the table where the group was having lunch and informed me that the coach wanted to speak to me.
To my absolute surprise, the coach asked me if I was fit to play 30 minutes. I was fully focused on my physical recovery, integrated with my teammates as always, and thinking that I would not play that day. Without any problem.
This request was something outside my physical recovery and training plan — because I was only going to play on the 4th at the Dragão — but of course I said yes. He replied that I should then be ready because I would play 30 minutes.
The rest everyone knows. I warmed up from half-time, watched the minutes go by, and was not called.
The coach had broken his word to me. At the end of the match I only wanted everything to finish with the victory and to be alone. I did not go to greet the fans. A failing that is solely my responsibility and that should not have happened. I apologise to the Portuguese who supported us intensely there, I apologise to the fans, and I apologise to those who, without being Portuguese, may have travelled there to see me and whom I may have disappointed.
Forty-eight hours later we had a conversation — myself, the coach and Simão Coutinho — since he had been the one accompanying our conversations in August. It was a deep moment, very frank, without any kind of filter.
We agreed that there was only one way to close this “case”: that the coach repeat what he had just told me in private, in the presence of Simão Coutinho, but in the press room.
What was agreed was simple: the coach would begin the press conference with this subject, seeking to close the matter by telling the truth. He would say that I never asked to play any minutes, that it was the coach and no one else who proposed the plan for this camp to me, and that it was a mistake to put me on to warm up and then not bring me on, and that if it happened again he would not do it.
We ended that meeting with the coach asking me for a hug, promising me that he would say at the conference what he had just said to me, and that the matter would be overcome. I would not play in Denmark and I would play the match at the Dragão. All of this in the presence of Simão Coutinho, always.
At the coach’s request, a meeting then took place between himself, Simão Coutinho and Tiago Craveiro by videoconference, in which what we had discussed was summarised.
A short document was produced which I myself validated and which, with my knowledge, was delivered to the coach, as he had requested.
The conference was what is known: the posture had nothing to do with our meeting; I heard expressions and an aggressiveness that I do not believe I deserved, an attitude of “I want, I can and I command” that he never showed me, not even remotely, in private the day before.
The notes I validated were the following:
“I think it is important, also because it is the truth, to clarify a few things before talking about Denmark:
1. I myself, and no one else, proposed to Cristiano a plan for him this sporting season with the National Team. It was a long and very good conversation.
2. I know how much he lives and loves the national team and the weight he has in the world, and even more the weight and the positive influence he has had on the national team for 24 consecutive years.
3. The plan I proposed to Cristiano was accepted.
4. He never questioned my options. He was exemplary, loyal and professional.
5. The match in Norway was not part of the plan I drew up for him. However, I felt that he had managed to recover physically from the first match and I warned him that I might have to use him. Cristiano agreed.
6. I made a mistake by putting someone of the stature of Pelé or Maradona on to warm up and then not putting him in the game. If it were today I would not do it.
7. To close the subject: I want Cristiano in the National Team. In fact I do not want him a little, I want him a lot. Fortunately he also believes in me. He believed at Al Nassr and he does here as well.
8. About not greeting the fans. We have already spoken about that. Someone who has played more than 230 matches for the national team does not receive lessons from me on love for Portugal. It was a moment of frustration that erases nothing. He is the player who gives the most autographs, takes the most selfies, and shows the most affection to the fans. Let us not invent problems where they do not exist. When we are not happy we react. That was all.
None of these notes, therefore, said that the coach should even apologise to me.
It was the second time he had broken his word to me.
I decided to leave the camp without waiting for any further breach of word. For me the truth is still the most important thing in the relationship between people. However much it hurts, let them tell me the truth.
In fact, in a conversation I had with the President of the FPF and with the coach on the morning of the day of that press conference — they can certainly confirm this — I reaffirmed that if they did not want me there they should tell me. It was enough for them to be frank with me. I would accept that and I promised that we would prepare something beautiful, as I dream will happen, and no one would be left angry.
I remember it as if it were today. They replied in unison that no. That my place was in the National Team.
Never, at any moment, have I interfered in any technical or tactical decision of any coach or national team manager in almost 25 years of career.
I accept, for better or worse, what they propose that I do. I respect the decision, and when they break their word to me, I feel that my place is not there.
I also owe an apology to my national team teammates for having left the camp.
Despite the absolute breach of trust in the coach’s word, as those who witnessed these conversations can attest, I should not have done it. The responsibility is exclusively mine.
I apologise to the Portuguese people once again, but the breaking of one’s word has, for me, a defining impact. I felt that, from that point on, my remaining would only harm the working group, and I did what I have always said I would do if I did not feel useful: I packed my bags and left.
The consequence of this act of mine must be assessed and punished by the Portuguese Football Federation. I understand that the punishment should have no mitigating factors. I am not just any player; I am team captain, and that constitutes an aggravating factor.
I have already apologised, but I know that attitudes must have consequences. Anyone who is in football as I am knows that, regardless of each person’s status, the rules are the same for everyone.
On this subject, I have heard a great deal of talk about farewell matches, that I must have a dignified farewell and that the Federation wants to give me that opportunity.
I learned in life, often hungry and with nothing to eat, that no one gives anything to anyone.
I can promise all my fans, naturally and especially all Portuguese people, that we will have one or more farewell matches; there will be time for that.
But when I think of the national team, what I really think of is competing. That is what I thought on the day I was given the news of my father’s death.
I was at a camp with our national team and I decided to stay there until the end of the match the following day. I did for the country what I would never do for any club.
Therefore, if I am physically well, playing for my club, with goals I hope, after serving the suspension that may be applied to me, I will be available, as I have always been until today, to compete and win for our national team.
This is, believe me, the purest of truths.
Cristiano Ronaldo
