Cristiano Ronaldo leaves the Portuguese national team camp after being excluded from the starting line-up

If as a coach I decided not to let him in, there's no need to make a drama out of it. And again: "If (tomorrow, ed.) everything proceeds normally, Gonçalo Ramos will play: if I then need Ronaldo, he will come in. If I don't need him, he won't come in." The words of coach Jorge Jesus, in the press conference on the eve of the Nations League match between Denmark and Portugal, were the straw that broke Cristiano Ronaldo's patience, already severely tested by the exclusion against Norway on Sunday. And they establish the break between the champion and his beloved national team.

Knowing that he was once again out of the starting list, the player emptied his locker in the Parken stadium in Copenhagen and got into a black van of the Portuguese Football Federation - as shown in a video released by A Bola - missing the third consecutive training session.

Meanwhile his teammates, with the exception of Francisco Conceição, were already on the pitch working. It remains to be seen whether the decision to leave the stadium is just the result of a moment of anger or whether it represents an irreconcilable break with the coach who dares to keep him on the bench.

If confirmed, as reported by another Portuguese media, the Sic Notícias television channel, the second hypothesis is the most probable. CR7's private jet would have taken off from Madrid bound for Copenhagen, to bring him back to the Spanish capital.

However, the sign of the worsening of the crisis between the footballer and Jorge Jesus. After yesterday's tensions, which forced the president of the Portuguese Football Federation, Pedro Proença, to urgently fly to Copenhagen, the crisis was considered over. In the morning the three met in the hotel in Malmö where the Portuguese delegation is staying. There was a clarification in a calm and cordial atmosphere, according to federation sources.

But in the afternoon the story took another turn. Cristiano Ronaldo abandoned training, a sign that the tension had not eased at all. His private plane flying to Copenhagen signals a break that is now irreversible. Jorge Jesus, moreover, had been very clear: "I can promise what I want. I am the coach, I told the player that he would not play. I will put you on the bench. If I need you for 30 minutes, you will play; otherwise not. Nobody will change my mind. Not him, nor anyone else in the world of football. Not any president. Never, absolutely no one."