Fernando Santos, the manager of Portugal has told the media that “it’s high time to leave” Cristiano Ronaldo alone.
Santos said this while denying rumors that the 37-year-old had threatened to leave the Portugal World Cup team in Qatar.
Remember that there were reports of Ronaldo reportedly threatening to leave Portugal’s World Cup squad after Santos benched him in their 6-1 victory over Switzerland in the round of 16.
The reports have subsequently been refuted by the Portuguese Football Association, which maintains that Ronaldo never threatened to quit the team in an argument with Santos.
Santos did, however, clarified the reports on Ronaldo directly during his pre-match press conference before Portugal’s World Cup quarterfinal encounter against Morocco on Saturday.
He said, “I think it is high time to leave Ronaldo alone.
“He has never told me that he wanted to leave our national team, and I think it is high time we stopped with this conversation, that we stop with the polemics.”
Telling how he revealed to Ronaldo that he will sit out of the match against Switzerland, Santos said: “I spoke to him after lunch on the day of the game and invited him into my office.
“For obvious reasons, Cristiano was not very happy about it as he has always been the starting player. He told me: ‘Do you really think it is a good idea?’ but we had a normal conversation in which I explained my viewpoints and of course he accepted them.
“We had a frank and normal conversation.”
Cristiano Ronaldo has had so much media attacks on his career, at both club and international levels.
The 5-time Balon d’Or revealed in his interview with English journalist, Piers Morgan, that most of what was reported about him by the media was untrue.
A recent report came out that Cristiano Ronaldo was about to sign a deal with Saudi Arabian club, Al-Nassr, with a potential pay of €200 million (£172 million) per season.
It was later reported by Piers Morgan, who claimed to have reached out to Ronaldo to confirm the validity of the news, that it was all lies.
