If this is to be the end for Cristiano Ronaldo at international level, at least it can be said that he left the stage as he bestrode it: with monumental self-regard. Ronaldo has always been a preening, self-absorbed player, but for a time, when he was one of the best in the world, it could be tolerated. For the past four years, though, he has actively and obviously held Portugal back. There is a great generation of technical talent here weighed down by the monstrous albatross of his ego.
To recap the basic details of the past couple of weeks. Ronaldo played 67 minutes of Portugal’s scratchy 1-0 win over Wales. Portugal coach Jorge Jesus, who replaced Roberto Martínez after the World Cup, said he had a verbal agreement with Ronaldo that he would not start the following game against Norway but would perhaps come off the bench. Early in the second half, Ronaldo went to warm up – although whether that was on his own initiative or because Jesus had told him to is unclear. The game was tight, Portugal ultimately winning 2-1, and Jesus did not bring Ronaldo on.
To Ronaldo and his army of apologists, Jesus was guilty of an unacceptable provocation. Jesus’s view was that winning the game took priority over the extremely delicate feelings of a 41-year-old forward. Ronaldo walked out on the squad, and perhaps on his international career, although only three days later, seemingly after Jesus had refused to pay penance for his blasphemy. Which is sad, although perhaps not quite in the way Ronaldo thinks it is.
It’s possible Jesus, who also coached Ronaldo at Al Nassr, could have handled the situation differently. He is not, it’s fair to say, a diplomat. After Martínez’s soft-pedalling, that is, though, perhaps exactly what was needed. Jesus is 72. His vision of management is old-school, which is to say that he is a dictator and he takes orders only from the club president, and then only if he feels like it. His career has been characterized by rifts with players who have resisted him. In a sense the only surprise is that his falling out with Ronaldo took until the second game of his reign.
Others might have been cowed in the face of Ronaldo’s sulk, the online backlash and criticism from some of the Portuguese press, certain elements of which Ronaldo owns, but not Jesus. He is a man of great eloquence and is always quotable but, even by his standards, his response to the furore has been remarkable as he has insisted on the primacy of the team over any individual. “I can say to any player that you’re starting on the bench: if I need you for 30 minutes you’re going to play, if I don’t need you, you’re not going to play,” he said. “The way I was reading the game he didn’t come on. Because it’s not Cristiano, just like it will never be any player that will change my ideas as the coach. Never! Not him, not anyone in football. Not him, not anyone, not any president. Never! Zero!”
His hardline approach might have backfired had Portugal then lost to Denmark, but they won 4-2, playing superbly. Gonçalo Ramos, who might have thought he had already settled this argument by replacing Ronaldo at the 2022 World Cup for the last-16 game against Switzerland and scoring a hat-trick in a 6-1 win, set up the first and scored another against the Danes, having already scored the winner against Norway. “The new manager is a great help,” Ramos said. “We have clearer ideas; we know exactly where each teammate is, both in defense and attack. We’re improving day by day, and it’s all part of a process. We’re very happy with the win, once again against a good team.” Ramos was on target Sunday as Portugal came from behind to beat Norway at home, making it four wins out of four in this window.
The tendency until now has been for the other Portugal players to back Ronaldo, to insist he was an icon and that they didn’t mind his superannuated lumbering. Bruno Fernandes has been notably diplomatic, but others are starting to break cover. Ramos’s former Paris Saint-Germain teammate Vitinha, for instance, who has seen at club level how beneficial a purge of egos can be, observed that Portugal’s improvement has been “the work of the coach … I think beyond the win, the content of our game was great.”
Jesus has offered Ronaldo another meeting to try to resolve the situation, but the Portuguese football federation seems already to have accepted how the affair will end, beginning plans for a farewell game for the country’s record scorer. Both Jesus and Ronaldo have indicated they will say more this week.
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But the truth is that this is a break that should have happened long ago. For three tournaments, Ronaldo has undermined an extremely talented Portugal. This is a sad story. It is sad Ronaldo’s career should have ended this way. But the saddest element is that a great player could be so deluded about his own fading ability that a national team’s hopes and dreams should have been sacrificed to his quest to break goalscoring records.
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