Luis Henrique, the lawyer of Portugal coach Jorge Jesus, has used his final column in the Portuguese newspaper Record to take direct aim at Cristiano Ronaldo, closing out his collaboration with the publication by citing the forward’s ownership stake in its parent company.
The column, titled “My last dance”, opens by explaining the decision to stop writing for the outlet. Henrique notes that Ronaldo is a leading shareholder of Medialivre, the company that owns Record, and argues that his position is untenable while the Al Nassr forward remains in open conflict with Jorge Jesus. Because that dispute extends, in his words, to himself, Henrique writes that it would not be appropriate — indeed would be shameful — for him to continue collaborating with and receiving remuneration from a company in which Ronaldo is a shareholder. He insists the decision is his own and not the result of any imposition.
Setting out his reasoning, he states that there is no intellectual independence without financial independence, and that whoever expresses opinions about power cannot depend on the power they express opinions about. He adds that he prefers to free himself from that tie immediately so that no one can think or dream of imposing any “consequence” on him. Henrique also rejects the idea that his departure is a gesture of convenience: freedom, he writes, that is only exercised when it costs nothing is called convenience, and he has never written for convenience.
He saves his closing words for Ronaldo himself. Henrique acknowledges that much of what the forward has achieved for himself, for his family and for his country has been defended and praised in his column, and reminded to those who had most forgotten it. But he goes on to say that Ronaldo’s actions, behaviour and obsession with certain indicators have achieved something no opponent ever managed: spoiling the ability to remember all the good he has brought. Ronaldo, he writes, increasingly surrounds himself with those who tell him what he wants to hear and less and less with those who tell him what he needs to hear.
He ends with a pointed image rather than a direct accusation, declaring that this is the fate of gods and autocrats: they end up alone on Olympus, surrounded by mirrors.
The column marks another episode in the conflict between Ronaldo and Jorge Jesus within the Portugal national team, with the coach’s lawyer now stepping away from a newspaper whose ownership he links to the captain.