Ronaldo explains Portugal exit, ready to accept punishment

Portugal captain Cristiano Ronaldo has published a detailed statement about his unexpected departure from the national team's camp ahead of October's match against Denmark, saying he is ready to accept whatever punishment the Portuguese Football Federation hands him, with no mitigating circumstances.

According to the forward of Saudi club Al-Nassr, he decided to leave the squad after the coach broke his word to him twice. The coach himself, after a 2-1 home win over Norway, said he saw no problem with the striker and was ready to call him up again — but said the decision was up to Ronaldo himself.

How the conflict with the coach began

Ronaldo said that after the 2026 World Cup he wrote a letter to the Portuguese people, which he has not yet published, and that the federation's president persuaded him not to rush into leaving the national team during the flight back from the United States. It was Ronaldo himself, he said, who recommended appointing the current coach when the president consulted him on candidates.

After the appointment, the coach personally travelled to meet the captain during his club's pre-season preparations. The coach said he was counting on Ronaldo and presented a workload plan: the forward was to play the first and last match of the qualifying cycle, with three or four substitutions planned in each game to manage his fitness.

The coach also suggested that Ronaldo skip the trip with the team to Norway and Denmark, play only the first match, and rejoin the squad before the home game at the Dragão stadium. The captain refused: he said skipping away matches would effectively strip him of the captaincy, and that such a privilege would set a bad example for the rest of the team. The coach agreed with this argument — the conversation took place in the presence of Al-Nassr sporting director Simão Coutinho.

The promised thirty minutes that never came

On the eve of the camp, the coach came to Ronaldo's home in Lisbon on his own initiative to reconfirm the agreement. The captain played the match at the Alvalade stadium, was substituted without objection, and himself handed the captain's armband to Bruno Fernandes, not suspecting it might be his last match as national team captain.

On the day of the match against Norway, during the team lunch, one of the coach's assistants approached Ronaldo and said the coach wanted to talk. The coach unexpectedly asked whether the player was ready to play thirty minutes — even though under the plan Ronaldo was only due to appear in the fourth match of the cycle. The forward agreed and began warming up from the second half of the match, waiting to be sent on. He was never brought on.

After the final whistle, Ronaldo did not go over to the fans and left without waiting for his teammates. "It was a mistake, and I alone am responsible for it," he wrote, apologizing to the Portuguese and foreign fans who had travelled to the match specifically to see him.

A broken agreement and the departure from camp

Two days later, Ronaldo, the coach and Simão Coutinho had a frank conversation and agreed to put the conflict behind them: at the press conference, the coach was to repeat publicly what he had admitted in private — that the captain had never asked for playing time, that the rotation plan had been the coach's own idea, and that sending Ronaldo to warm up and then not bringing him on had been a mistake. The two sides drew up a short eight-point document, which Ronaldo approved and handed to the coach.

However, at the press conference itself, according to the player, the coach's tone turned out to be completely different — aggressive and far from what had been promised the day before. "It was the second time he broke his word to me," Ronaldo wrote. "I decided to leave the camp rather than wait for another broken promise."

Ready to accept punishment

In the statement, the captain apologized to his teammates for his departure and stressed that he alone bears responsibility for the decision. At the same time, he insists that any punishment from the Portuguese Football Federation should be handed down with no mitigating circumstances — in his view, the captaincy makes the offense worse rather than excusing it.

Ronaldo noted that he has played a record 234 matches and scored 146 goals for the national team, and promised that after serving his punishment he will return to the squad if he is physically fit and continues playing and scoring regularly for his club. The Madeira-born star also promised to play one or more farewell matches for the national team, but said that for now his focus is on continuing to fight for wins with Portugal.

Source: sport.cz