Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Portugal camp after being told he would not play | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo left Portugal’s camp in Denmark without prior notice minutes before training, after head coach Jorge Jesus justified benching him against Norway and indicated he would also not play against Denmark on Thursday.

A Bola reported he left Parken Stadium in Copenhagen in a black van with two federation staff as team-mates went out to train. Marca said he would fly by private jet to Madrid within hours, ending his involvement.

Ronaldo said on Instagram that, after the coach’s press conference and a conversation with the Portuguese federation president, he decided to leave the training ground. He added he will explain his reasons in due course and wished Portugal and all team-mates good luck.

The dispute began on Sunday when the 41-year-old was left out against Norway and did not appear despite a half-hour warm-up. For technical reasons he had only experienced such treatment on four previous occasions across 234 caps.

On Wednesday, Jesus said he told Cris he would not play in either game, denied a rift and criticised a three-way meeting called by the federation president. He stressed his authority and had said Ronaldo would train today, which did not happen.

After hearing those comments, Ronaldo chose to depart. Without further details, this could prove the end of his Portugal career, which includes Euro 2016 and Nations League 2024. He has 979 career goals, has targeted 1000 and said in August this is probably his final season.

Source: Superdeporte

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”