Jorge Jesus has promised to address the Cristiano Ronaldo affair in full, but only once Portugal’s international break is finished. The new Portugal manager said he will not dodge the subject, telling reporters that he has nothing to hide.
“I will explain everything after the last match. I have been in football for many years and I know I did nothing that should have caused things to be different,” he said. He added that the matter would be revisited once the fixture against Norway is out of the way: “After the match against Norway, we will talk about this issue. I will not hide from it or run away from it.”
The comments came in a brief interview minutes before kick-off against Denmark, a match that has been pushed firmly into the background by the fallout surrounding Ronaldo’s departure from the squad. Jesus used the opportunity to ask the media to set the topic aside at least until the end of an international break he has described as enormously turbulent, coming at the very start of his reign as Portugal coach.
That request is unlikely to be easy to honour. Any press conference following the fixtures will inevitably centre almost entirely on Ronaldo, whose absence has dominated coverage in Portugal. The tension has been building in recent hours after the forward missed Tuesday’s training session and decided to head to Madrid, a move that followed what he heard at the previous day’s press conference.
Jesus, however, was keen to lower the temperature and made clear that Ronaldo’s standing in the game is beyond argument. “No one can take away what Cristiano represents. He is an icon and that is not something that can be debated,” he said.