Cristiano Ronaldo: Ronaldo wants to continue playing for Portugal's national team

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has ruled out retiring from the Portuguese national team. However, he apparently made the continuation of his career in the team dependent on replacing national coach Jorge Jesus. "The coach broke his word to me," Ronaldo said in a statement.

In his letter, Ronaldo apologized to the Portuguese and "to my teammates" for leaving after the Nations League game in Norway. »I have decided to leave training camp rather than wait for more broken promises. Despite the complete loss of trust in the coach, I shouldn't have done that."

On social networks, Ronaldo described in detail how the break with national coach Jesus came about. Accordingly, the 72-year-old coach agreed with him on how he should be used in the Nations League games, but did not comply with this. The decisive factor for his departure was that he was not substituted as announced in the first leg of the Nations League in Norway (September 27th).

Ronaldo wants to continue playing for the national team

Jesus himself said on Sunday after the 2-1 second leg against Norway in the Nations League that the door was open for Ronaldo to return to the national team. "We can talk before the next nomination, but Cris is the one who will decide," Jesus said. There was no apology apparently expected from Ronaldo. Ronaldo, in turn, made it known that he would “always” be available to the national team.

Ronaldo now wrote that he originally wanted to announce his resignation from the national team after the World Cup in the summer. However, association president Pedro Proença "strongly asked" him to reconsider the decision, saying that the Portuguese association FPF wanted him to continue. At the same time, he asked him for his opinion on Jesus' commitment: "I told the president of the association that in my opinion this would be the right choice."

Ronaldo wrote that he was “really happy about this decision” on the day Jesus was presented. “It was the right decision, as the results confirm.” With four wins from four games, the 2016 European champions have already qualified for the quarter-finals of the Nations League.