"It is not about ignoring Cristiano Ronaldo," Jorge Jesus said, as the Portugal coach tried to keep talks open after the fallout around the captain. Ronaldo is set to travel back to Saudi Arabia on Sunday, the same day Portugal host Norway in the Nations League at Estádio do Dragao at 20.45. He is then expected to begin preparations with Al-Nassr at the start of the week for Friday’s match against Al-Diriyah.
Portugal's timing problem
Jesus also called Ronaldo "a symbol of the national team and of Portugal. After the match there is still enough time to talk about it." That makes the chronology pretty awkward. The scheduled arrival back in Saudi Arabia lands exactly on kickoff in Porto, and Portugal’s recent Nations League form is not forcing an urgent footballing rethink, either. They have won their last three matches in the competition.
Ronaldo’s on-pitch footprint in the Nations League has also been small so far. He has made 1 appearance in the competition this season. Across the season, he has 3 goals in 5 appearances and 453 minutes, so the dispute is not being driven by a total loss of productivity.
What happened before the split
The row escalated on Wednesday when Ronaldo left the team hotel in Copenhagen and flew to Madrid while Portugal were still preparing for the Denmark match. There are still different accounts around what he was told before that, with A Bola saying he was told he would play 30 minutes and Foot Mercato saying he was left on the bench for 90 minutes in the second match.
Ronaldo has already said that, "at the appropriate time", he would explain the "truth about the reasons for my departure from the national team", while insisting he had "always devoted myself with all my strength". Jesus is still leaving the door open, but the travel plan points the other way, and the immediate conversation now looks more like one for next week than for Sunday night.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 3 outlets. How we work →
