Cristiano Ronaldo leaves the Portuguese national team after 24 years

CR7 has announced that he has left the Portuguese national team after 24 years. The decision comes after yet another exclusion from the starting eleven. The relationship with coach Jorge Jesus is now at its lowest point. The player also abandoned training camp and missed training

Cristiano Ronaldo has announced his decision to leave the Portuguese national team after 24 years with the Portugal shirt. "At the right time I will tell all the Portuguese people the reasons that pushed me to leave the national team, to which I have always dedicated myself. Now it is time to wish good luck to Portugal and to all my teammates, without exceptions." With a post on Instagram the Portuguese champion confirmed that he had cut the umbilical cord that had kept him tied to his most loved shirt for 24 years.

The decision after yet another bench

A decision taken after coach Jorge Jesus had closed the door in his face again in a press conference, on the eve of the Nations League match against Denmark: "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." Phrases that sounded like a lack of respect for his history and which made CR7's patience overflow, already severely tested by the exclusion against Norway.

The farewell during the retreat

Learning 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. Anger and disappointment gave birth to the abandonment of the retreat, certifying a now irreconcilable fracture with the coach who dares to keep him on the bench. The Portuguese television channel Sic Notícias reported that the player's private jet took off from Madrid bound for Copenhagen, to bring him back to the Spanish capital.

The summit with the president of the Football Federation

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 an exchange of views 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. 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."