Zinedine Zidane praises the career of Cristiano Ronaldo and refuses to comment on his crisis with the national team

Zinedine Zidane, coach of the French national team, paid tribute to Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, expressing his happiness at working with him during a previous period of time.

Ronaldo played under Zidane's leadership at the Spanish club Real Madrid between 2016 and 2018, and together they won a number of titles, most notably LaLiga and the Champions League.

In a press conference held on Sunday, Zinedine Zidane was asked to comment on Cristiano's crisis with his country's national team, as he left the team's camp without revealing the reasons.

Zidane said: "I think his distinguished career should be praised. I was lucky to have him with me. He led us to achieve amazing achievements."

The 54-year-old coach added: “I take my hat off to Cristiano, because I have great respect for him,” preferring not to go into the details of the Al-Nasr Saudi club player’s crisis with his national team.

Press reports claimed that Ronaldo withdrew from his national team camp due to a dispute with coach Jorge Jesus.

Upon leaving the camp, Cristiano wrote on his Instagram account: “After the press conference of the national team coach (Jorge Jesus) and after a conversation with the president of the Portuguese Football Federation (Pedro Proenca), I made the decision to leave the national team camp.”

He continued: "In due time, I will tell the Portuguese people the truth about the reasons that led to my departure from the national team, to which I was always committed."

He continued: “Now it is time to wish success to Portugal and to all my teammates without exception.”

Commenting on the incident, Jesus said: “Cristiano is a symbol of the national team, of Portugal. After the next match (against Norway), there will be plenty of time to talk about that.”