Cristiano Ronaldo has spelled out the eight points he says the Portugal head coach, Jorge Jesus, agreed to deliver at a press conference before the team’s game in Denmark last week, publishing in full the text he says was approved in advance and then never used.
In a lengthy statement issued on Tuesday, Ronaldo said he had signed off on a document listing the points following a video meeting that involved him, Jesus, his adviser Tiago Craveiro and the sporting director of his club, Al-Nassr, Simão Coutinho. The meeting, he said, took place at the coach’s request, and the document was afterwards “delivered to the coach, as he had requested”.
Ronaldo said Jesus’s failure to raise the points at the press conference amounted to “the second time he had broken his word to me”. He added that he had then “decided to leave the camp without waiting for any further breach of word”. His statement also touched on his failure to salute Portugal’s supporters after the game in Norway, a match in which he warmed up extensively but was not brought on.
The notes, as Ronaldo presented them, begin with Jesus stating that he himself, and no one else, proposed a plan for Ronaldo’s international season following a long and very good conversation. The second point concerns how much Ronaldo loves the national team and the weight he carries in the world, along with the positive influence he has had on Portugal over 24 consecutive years. The third records that the plan was accepted, and the fourth that Ronaldo never questioned the coach’s decisions and was “exemplary, loyal and professional”.
The fifth point addresses Norway: Ronaldo’s statement has Jesus saying the match was not part of the plan drawn up for him, but that he felt Ronaldo had recovered physically from the first match and warned him he might have to use him, which Ronaldo accepted. The sixth is an admission of error, with Jesus saying he made a mistake by putting someone “of the stature of Pelé or Maradona” on to warm up and then not putting him in the game, and that he would not do it if it were today.
In the seventh point Ronaldo has Jesus declaring that he wants him in the national team — “not a little, I want him a lot” — and noting that Ronaldo believes in him, both at Al-Nassr and now with Portugal. The eighth deals with the failure to greet the fans, with Jesus saying that someone who has played more than 230 matches for the national team does not receive lessons from him on love for Portugal, that it was a moment of frustration, and that Ronaldo is the player who gives the most autographs, takes the most selfies and shows the most affection to supporters. “Let us not invent problems where they do not exist,” the point reads. “When we are not happy we react.”
Ronaldo’s statement went on to stress that the notes contained no demand for an apology: “That was all. None of these notes, therefore, said that the coach should even apologise to me.” Reflecting on Jesus’s conduct at the press conference, Ronaldo said he heard “expressions and an aggressiveness” that he did not believe he deserved, describing “an attitude of ‘I want, I can and I command'” that the coach had never shown him in private the day before.