Cristiano Ronaldo on Tuesday night finally broke his silence on the ongoing feud with Portugal manager Jorge Jesus, revealing what exactly happened during the Nations League and what prompted him to leave the team camp midway through the international break. The cat’s finally out of the bag! In a lengthy statement, CR7 claimed that the Portugal manager broke his word and concluded by saying that he remains available to the national team for the next international match in November. His latest statement also confirms that Ronaldo isn’t calling time on his international career for now.
The forward, who is nearing the 1,000 career goals mark, also stated that he had prepared a letter for the Portuguese people after the FIFA World Cup 2026 campaign came to an end, post the defeat to Spain; however, he didn’t make it public on the request of Portugal Football Federation’s President. After the 2026 World Cup, I prepared a letter to the Portuguese people, which I still have, containing the words I want to share with them when I leave our team for good. The 41-year-old stated that Jesus initially agreed upon a plan under which Ronaldo would miss the games against Norway and Denmark to manage his fitness.
Because the Portuguese Football Federation wanted me to stay,” Ronaldo said in his 1740-word statement, shared on Instagram, after the tournament, on the flight home from the United States, the federation president asked me, and insisted, that I reconsider my decision to leave. Ronaldo claimed that he was repeatedly lied to by the manager about the agreed-upon playing time, saying he was left with no choice but to abandon the national team to protect his integrity. “As promised, I have decided to give a direct, first-person account of the circumstances surrounding the final stage of my time with the national team. “Immediately afterwards, he asked for my opinion on the current national team coach, whom he was considering alongside other candidates whose names he did not disclose. So, on the day the current coach was unveiled, I was truly pleased with the choice. It was the right decision, as the results have shown,” he added. I agreed, and we arranged to meet at the end of my vacation. We met at the Cidade do Futebol, where my club was holding its preseason training. He outlined a plan for my involvement there and then. “At that point, he suggested that I not travel with the national team to Norway and Denmark. I rejected the offer immediately. It seemed obvious to me that I could not accept it. Not playing the games abroad did not mean I would stop being our team’s captain. Having the privilege of staying in Portugal would not set a good example. In the end, the coach agreed with my assessment,” he added. Ronaldo then finally stated what led to his departure from Copenhagen before Portugal’s Nations League match versus Denmark last week. “Everyone knows the rest. I warmed up from halftime onwards, watched the minutes tick by and wasn’t called on.
I told the federation president that, in my opinion, it would be the right decision. “A few days later, I received my first call from the new national team coach, who told me he wanted to meet me in person. That day, the coach told me he was counting on me and that my presence was essential to his project. He told me I would play the first and last games and that, for fitness reasons, he would always make three or four substitutions per game,” stated Ronaldo. However, the equation changed completely on the day of the Norway game, when Jesus told Ronaldo he would play for half an hour. The manager had broken his word to me,” said the striker.
He proposed that I play the first game and stay in Portugal, then rejoin the team before the game at the Estadio do Dragao.
