Cristiano Ronaldo, football’s biggest cry baby, simply has no idea when to stop. He threw his toys out of the pram after he was left as an unused substitute during Portugal’s Nations League match against Norway last week, the latest and most blatant example of his tendency to make every moment in football solely about him. The captain of Portugal chose to walk out of the national team camp as a way of making his displeasure plain. His sense of sporting entitlement is as huge as the salary (reported to be in the region of £177 million a season) he earns in the sporting joke that is the Saudi Pro League.
Ronaldo really isn’t doing himself any favours and risks tarnishing his footballing legacy
Ronaldo’s public hissy fit has now been followed up by a lengthy (nearly 2,000 words, no less) statement, criticising the national team’s head coach, Jorge Jesus. Ronaldo accused Jesus of breaking his promises (twice) and laid out the ‘truth’ in gloriously self-absorbed detail. He claims that Jesus had agreed a plan under which the player would miss the Norway and Denmark matches to manage his fitness. However, on the day of the Norway game, the coach told him he would play for 30 minutes.
‘Everyone knows the rest. I warmed up from half-time onwards, watched the minutes tick by and wasn’t called on,’ Ronaldo said. ‘The manager had broken his word to me.’ Ye Gods – it is hard to know whether to laugh or cry. Ronaldo has been playing the game long enough to know that a coach’s plans can change at a minute’s notice depending on the flow of a match. Jesus (and what a fantastically appropriate name for a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders) is trying to win football matches and has a million things on his mind at any moment. Managing Ronaldo’s oversized ego must be way down the list of his priorities. Naturally enough, Ronaldo doesn’t see it that way. How could he, when the whole world is supposed to revolve around him and him alone?
There’s more. Ronaldo explains that a subsequent meeting with the Portugal coach produced an agreement for the coach to clarify events at his next press conference. According to the player, an eight-point document was prepared saying he had never demanded playing time, had respected Jesus’s decisions and that the coach asking him to warm up without bringing him on had been a mistake. Ronaldo said the agreed notes did not require Jesus to apologise to him (how gracious) but said the coach’s subsequent public remarks bore no resemblance to their private discussion.
‘It was the second time he had broken his word to me,’ Ronaldo said. ‘I decided to leave the training camp without waiting for any further broken promises.’ What planet is Ronaldo on? What coach in their right mind would agree to such conditions? On Sunday, after Portugal’s victory in their match against Norway, Jesus denied he made any agreement with the player.
Ronaldo did apologise for leaving his teammates in the lurch, accepting that his position as captain made his conduct more serious. He said it was up to the Portuguese Football Federation to assess the consequences of his actions and decide on any punishment. The forward confirmed that he has not retired from international football and remains available for selection. What sane football coach would welcome back such a circus?
Ronaldo really isn’t doing himself any favours and risks tarnishing his footballing legacy. The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is a supremely gifted athlete who owes his unparalleled success to hard work and dedication. No one can take his achievements away from him but his behaviour in the twilight years of his great career doesn’t reflect well on him. Football is a team sport and age catches up with even the most gifted players. Ronaldo, at 41, has lasted much longer than most players at the top of the game but he is no longer good enough to be an automatic choice at the international level. Everyone can see it, except the player himself. Ronaldo, whether he likes it or not, needs to grow up and accept that he is no longer the main man. Football has moved on.
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